"Do observant Jews have sexual relations through a hole in a bed sheet?" I can't say I had heard of this question before - nor even thought of it.
I was poking around in a few different places for more on sex within Jewish marriage (where does it say it is required, what are the interpretations, etc.). It was a spin-off from last week's revelation that porn star Nina Hartley is teaching adult education classes in a synagogue (See Feb. 14's "
Jewish Porn Strikes Again!"). Kosher sex indeed.
Anyhow, the wacky folks at
Aish HaTorah seem to think it is a common question. The "Aish Rabbi" (of "Ask the Rabbi" Aish fame) summarizes the history of the myth:
Many years ago, two tourists were walking through Mea Shearim, an Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem. As they were looking at all the children playing in the street and the merchants selling their wares, the tourists looked up at a laundry line and saw a sheet with a hole in the middle of it. One asked his friend if he knew what it was. Taking his best guess, the friend said it must be a special sheet that married couples use for relations. This first guy then noticed there were strings tied to each corner of the sheet. "And what are those strings on the four corners?" he asked. "To tie to the four bed posts," his friend replied.
Actually, it was a tallis.
To be frank, having sex through a sheet sounded far too kinky for Jewish law. But maybe that is just my unenlightened view of stuffy orthodoxy.
Indeed, the Aish rabbi cites "the Code of Jewish Law (OC 250)" (can anyone explain the parenthetical reference he makes to me?)
during relations, both the man and woman must be completely unclothed. This is because the Torah wants the husband and wife to be as intimate as possible, without anything separating between them.
That's more like it, at least as far as the uptight traditional veneer of religious views on sex would appear to me. Now I am even more curious. What about socks when it is cold in the winter? Does the "Code" refer to frequency? Position? Orthodoxy seems at first like a missionary-position-only do-only-what-ya-gotta religious movement, but most things I have heard indicate that the married Orthodox Jews have good sex lives.
Of course, it may be that what contributes to their health sex lives is the extensive denial they must practice. There are many days on the calendar, including certain holidays and around a woman's period every month, when a man and woman cannot have sex. Heck, at cetain times I believe they cannot even really touch each other at all.
Rest assured, you can count on Howard to do the tough investigating... I intend to look into the subject further. Hey, I'm allowed to do this kind of thing. I need to know! I'm getting married in October and want to be prepared.
Ralph Nader, Phone Home!: How would Ralph Nader handle the war on terrorism?
Happy Fun Pundit reviews Nader's policies and asks that "Someone, PLEASE contact the mothership and have this guy returned to his home planet."
Mista Carter, Mista Carter, I gotta go to the American Embassy in Tehran: Failed ex-president Jimmy Carter has joined the moronic chorus of criticism of
Bush's "axis of evil" phrase.
VodkaPundit replies "W has ruined 'progress' with North Korea, Iran, and Iraq, you say? Oh, right. I forgot -- you and your buddy Clinton got weapons inspectors back into Iraq, North Korea to stop exporting missiles, and a democratic regime in Iran. And poor dumb George just pissed all that away when he uttered three little words."
Over at NRO's The Corner,
Jonah Goldberg digs up some historical Carter idiocies:
To the Stalinist Polish First Secretary Edward Gierek: "our concept of human rights is preserved in Poland ... much better than other European nations with which I'm familiar."
To Nicolae Ceaucescu: "Our goals are the same, to have a just system of economics and politics, to let the people of the world share in growth, in peace, in personal freedom and in the benefits to be derived from the proper utilization of natural resources. We believe in enhancing human rights. We believe that we should enhance, as independent nations, the freedom of our own people."
What do we mean by Islam anyway? Is it a religion of peace?
Paul Donnelly complains that
the Bush administration shows no clue that we face a theological struggle as much as a military one, that what we mean by "Islam" will be as decisive as what we meant by Communism. (Just this yesterday, in fact, Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a speech: "We're not fighting a religious war. We're fighting a freedom war.") Defense Department think tanks are actually prohibited from studying the national-security implications of religion, which "takes off the table just the topic that militant Islam finds most compelling," says Jack Miles, who won the Pulitzer Prize for God: A Biography. "One can no more discuss (Islam and terrorism) without discussing theology than one can discuss communism without discussing ideology."
Egyptian economics: Stanley Kurtz observes a near-riot as Egyptians fight over
scare consumer goods - and much of it just ends up on the black market. The affair "puts one in mind of the old Soviet Union. And despite its ongoing efforts at economic liberalization, the Egyptian government's commodity distribution and central-planning apparatus is all too reminiscent of the bad old days of Communism. The International Monetary Fund has been trying to get Third World governments like Egypt to drop their food subsidies for decades, but the riots that follow cuts in government price supports threaten to topple these weak regimes. So market mechanisms are suppressed, and the shortages continue."
Top Ten Good Things About Being Stationed in Kandahar: (From the February 21st Late Show with David Letterman, as read by Army soldiers in Kandahar, Afghanistan
10. "When I go for a ride in my armored Humvee, everyone is really friendly to me"
(Sergeant Anthony Croft)
9. "All the fabulous new goat recipes"
(Sergeant Andrew Carpenter)
8. "I've gotten the autographs of over a dozen Mullahs"
(Staff Sergeant Roger Bell)
7. "You don't really have time to dwell on that figure skating controversy"
(Specialist Ricky Covert)
6. "All-you-can-eat sand"
(Sergeant Tyson Daniel)
5. "Did you say 'Kandahar'? They told me this was Canada"
(Corporal Duane Charlton)
4. "Aren't many better ways of getting out of jury duty"
(Specialist Maurice Smith)
3. "There's a great duty-free shop in what's left of the Kandahar
airport"
(Specialist Lakeisha Blanks)
2. "I haven't seen The Late Show in six months"
(Specialist Marlon Harris)
1. "Of all the 'stan' countries, this is the place to be"
(Command Sergeant Major Iuniasolua Savusa)
9-11 all just a big misunderstanding: The Saudi ambassador to the U.S. writes an op-ed in the
USA Today (Feb. 18), claiming that "while there may not be an urgent U.S.-Saudi political crisis, surely there is a communications crisis — and it is not at the level of government officials so much as it is within the public. Unless we get a better understanding of each other's culture and thinking, the attitudes of our citizens toward one another will continue to be misunderstood and only cause further mistrust and even hatred."
Obviously, we just don't "get" the Saudis, eh?
Meanwhile,
John O'Sullivan advocates working for gradual change in Saudi Arabia. He fears that the fall of the Saudi regime would bring a terrorist government to power. "Reforming the House of Saud will be a formidable and subtle task. But it offers a great deal more hope for everyone than blithely burning it down."
Saudi Trade Minister Osama bin Jafar Faqih claimed earlier that "not only do the threats of (US President George W.) Bush against Iran not damage relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, but they strengthen ties between the two countries." (
AFP)
But
Tim Gross thinks differently: "it has been clear since September 11 — and actually since well before then — that if America wants to prevent a major terrorist onslaught, there is one government above all others that must be reformed or replaced. And it is not that of Saddam, but the House of Saud."
McJerusalem: As if there isn't enough unrest in the Holy City, a McFlap is developing over a recently opened McDonald's in the central Jerusalem bus station. The Jerusalem Rabbinical Council, responsible for certifying restaurants as kosher, has refused to give the establishment its approval; the Israeli owner rejected their suggestions on accommodation, which included changing the name of several branches to "McKosher." The owner attempted to compromise with the suggestions "McExpress" or "The Kosher McDonald's," even suggesting a logo change from red to blue. All to no avail; the franchise owner further infuriated the haredi by posting signs that proclaim the food is kosher despite a lack of certification, and that the branch will close on the Sabbath. The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled last December that the owners of the new central bus station must allow McDonald's to open a branch, despite Orthodox threats of a boycott.(
United Press International: UPI hears ... Feb. 21, 2002)
Egypt is a nation of peace: A fabulous front to put up when
Egypt goes trawling for American handouts.
More on Yemeni Jews: Today, the
Monitor is still in Yemen, looking at the JEwish community there.
Mike Fumento asks too much: "A paper with Janet Cooke as part of its legacy certainly knows the value of demanding evidence from reporters. And while nobody ever expected the Washington Post to play cheerleader in this war, playing it straight shouldn't seem to be too much to ask, either." ("
The Washington Post’s questionable Afghanistan reporting.")
Do as we say: David Ignatius thinks that "the French, and most other Europeans, would in the end support a well-drafted U.S. plan for toppling [Iraqi President Saddam] Hussein -- but only if it was backed by a solid international coalition that was
rooted in real consultation." In plain English, "we'll support everything you do as long as you do what we want."
When confronting evil, clarity is a virtue: So admits National Security Adviser
Condoleeza Rice in USA Today (Feb. 19).
Meanwhile, according to
Michael Novak, "President Bush laid down the gauntlet--All you so-called relativists and nonjudgmentalists out there: Tell me how these guys aren't evil. Tell me how they just need "therapy." His words are still hanging out there as a dare. No one has picked them up. But you can bet your life somebody will. And whoever does will get laughed off the air. The moral framework of discussion has changed."
On the "the sound byte that will go down in history,"
Jackson Murphy notes, "The recognition that these nations are an axis of evil is the equivalent of President Reagan's demand: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" These words and "the axis of evil" speech are about two things: challenging others and providing leadership."
Is the axis evil? Jack Spencer says,
you betcha (NY Post, Feb. 13).
The objections of other nations and pundits, according to
Claudia Rosett, "may be interesting and fun to discuss. But... The wording that lingers, the phrase that now evokes the discussion and frames the debate, is none of the elaborate reaction.... It is Mr. Bush's "axis of evil." And with that, Mr. Bush has advanced us all some valuable distance toward a clearer set of rules about what will be tolerated in the New World Order, and what won't. "
Churchil on Islamist terrorism:
[The Bolsheviks] seek as the first condition of their being the overthrow and destruction of all existing institutions and of every State and Government now standing in the world. They too aim at a worldwide and international league, a league of the failures, the criminals, the unfit, the mutinous, the morbid, the deranged and the distraught in every land; and between them and such order of civilization as we have been able to build up since the dawn of history there can, as Lenin rightly proclaims, be neither truce nor pact.
Joeseph Shattan says, "replace Lenin with bin Laden (or Khomeini, or Saddam Hussein, or that unregenerate arch-terrorist, Yassir Arafat) and you have an excellent picture of what we are up against today."
Anti-Israel groups barking up some strange trees: The intrepid morons at the International Action Center in Baltimore are looking for donations, and ask you to "
take up a collection at your school, mosque, church, synagogue or community/union meeting." [Emphasis added] (Thanks to
Damian Penny for the heads up.)
I'm ashamed and disgusted: A Scottish MP is
campaigning for the boycott of Israeli goods in Britain.
And he is from Dundee, where I studied in '94-'95. The scheme was proposed by Dundee East Minister for the Scottish Parliament (MSP) John McAllion.
The aim is to suspend British trade agreements with Israel to highlight what the group considers to be the “violation of human rights in Israeli-controlled territories”. McAllion bleated: “I’ve always supported the Palestinian cause, as have many people in Dundee since they came under Israeli attack."
Do his constituents care one way or another? Unlikely. Dundonians may be nostly lower-class economically, but they do not lack class... While many Dundonians are down on their luck and would be inclined to root for the underdog, their conception of who the underdog actually is in this conflict has probably been well distorted by people like McAllion and newspapers like the Scotsman.
Network news pans Bush, not the Axis of Evil: My friend Rich Noyes has done an analysis of nightly news reports on Bush's "axis of evil" comments and discovered that 73 percent of stories on the concept focused on negative reaction to it and that "out of 19 talking heads invited by reporters to react to the administration's policy, 89 percent condemned Bush's statement." (Read the
pdf file of his report)
Glaz-ed ranting: Jamie Glazov is out of his gourd over Jean Chretien's refusal to cooperate with the U.S. in the
Iraqi shakedown.
Rebutting recycled nonsense: Victor Davis Hanson goes over the littany of opposition to attacking Iraq: "an attack against Iraq will supposedly inflame the Muslim world. Toppling Saddam Hussein will cause irreparable rifts with the Europeans and our moderate allies, and turn world opinion against America."
The historian
rebuts these recycled fears: "Armed action is judged simply on two criteria — morality and effectiveness."
Henry Ford's anti-semitic track for sale in Hungary: But not for long. The Budapest Sun reports that the British "supermarket chain Tesco came under fire from the Jewish community after Hungarian-language copies of an anti-Semitic book written by American industrialist Henry Ford appeared on shelves in the company’s Székesfehérvár and Miskolc stores. Tesco Global Áruházak Rt Managing Director Paul Kennedy said the company had not deliberately put the title, "The International Jew - The World’s Foremost Problem," written in the 1920s, on sale. "The book came in from a supplier as part of a stock of bargain books under a generic code and the minute it came to our attention it was withdrawn from sale," he said." (
Tesco under fire over anti-Semitic book, Feb. 21)
Aussie Anti-Semitism: A new report details an increase in
anti-semitic incidents in Australia.
Iranian democracy in action:
Thank you for visiting the TehranTimes Web Site.[Users can check one or more of the following comments for submission.]
- I find that your site is a useful source of information.
- I like the design and organization of your site.
- I think the archives part of the site is very useful.
- I find that the search of the site is very helpful.
- I'm sending you my comments in a separate e-mail message.
This was found by Ken Goldstein,
The Illuminated Donkey. He comments: "Hey, boss, I just got the feedback comments, and what did I tell you? Our readers just love us! Except for a few dissidents, but fortunately we have their e-mail addresses."
Mike Sultan's Joke of the Day: Yassir Arafat - trapped in his bedroom for several months - is again calling for a cease-fire in the Middle East.
Arafat ... been around awhile, getting a little old, maybe a little
forgetful ...
Arafat called for a cease-fire ... demanded help from President Nixon.
Grey old lady going senile:
Little Green Footballs questions the NYT's editorial idiocy.
To read that first graf you’d think the Palestinian “militants” (come on, you can say it: terrorists) were targeting only soldiers now; and of course that is the public relations angle the PA is working. And the NY Times appears to have bought it. But wasn’t it just two days ago that a fun-loving virgin-obsessed bomb-wearing “militant” tried to board a civilian bus? Is the Old Grey Lady getting senile?
I forgot to blog an accompanying op/ed
parroting the NYT's "Israel Must Surrender for Peace" line.
DOD Guide to Terror: Courtesy of
Little Green Footballs, I found the U.S. Department of Defense's "
Global Terror Group Primer."
How Many Muslims? An article on WorldNetDaily about the "
American Islamic lobby" mis-cites the article I did with Iain Murray back in November. We did not actually conduct our own study, we simply assessed the validity of available studies and numbers. And our conclusion was not so definitive as "fewer than 2 million," as WND put it, but actually "
2 million, give or take a few hundred thousand."
UPDATE: The author of the WorldNetDaily article just contacted me to say he corrected his reference to my work.
Making it up as he goes along: Blogger
Tim Blair pens his own piece for ArabNews on "why they hate us..."
Israel should surrender: There won't be peace in the Middle East until Israel surrenders,
says the New York Times.
Airlines suck? Blame it on Osama: Suzanne Fields says that the airlines may never recover from the 9-11 terrorist attacks. But she foolishly blames Osama Bin Laden for the
downturn in airline business. The problem lies in the stupid airlines themselves. Having to wait two hours to get onto a plane is not just because we have an increased, federal security regime at airports. It is because the airlines have always been inefficient, consumer-unfriendly and all-around about as intelligent as a ball of lint.
That damned right wing: The Middle East slaughterhouse? According the Christian Science Monitor,
it's all the fault of those "rightist politicians" in Sharon's cabinet...
Yemenese democratic initiatives: President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen claims his
biggest initiative in counteracting the root causes of terrorism, he says, has been going on since he took office in 1978: developing the nation's economy and democratic institutions.
Yemen is the only Gulf Arab country that has embraced multiparty democracy. It sponsors democracy education, allows women the vote, televises parliamentary debates, and allows broad press freedoms. Since 1990, when the traditionalist and free-market North united with the Marxist South to become the Republic of Yemen, the country has had two parliamentary elections and one presidential election.
Cyprus resolution in the works: A possible resolution to the Cyprus conflict, an island divided between Greeks and Turks, seems to be shaping up. One of the biggest reasons is that
Cyprus is set to enter the European Union soon - Turkish Cypriots want in with the rest of Cyprus and Turkey itself does not want to jeopardize its own standing in the EU entrance cue.
Friedman's peace plan, continued:
There is no reason why Israel alone must give ground, as the Saudi-Friedman plan demands. That would mean surrendering the Jews' holiest places and placing their security in untrustworthy hands in return for such baubles as "normalized trade" and a grudging pledge that it will not be annihilated. Surely the first move should come from the 22 members of the Arab League, several of which harbour, finance and otherwise support terrorists preying on Israel. It will be time enough for Israel to consider what territory it should relinquish when these hostile regimes unambiguously acknowledge her right to exist.
But details of who should do what and when ignores an important point: The Friedman-Saudi idea suffers from historical amnesia. The proposed concessions go further than what was discussed at Camp David in 2000 and Taba in 2001; that is, before Mr. Arafat walked away from the Deal of the Century, when he was at least prepared to discuss "non-total" Israeli withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem and the disputed Territories. Since then, the world has been confronted by Mr. Arafat's treachery, cynicism and brutality. Yet, here we are asked to reward him for his bloody intransigence. And what lesson would he draw from that? Why, that duplicity and terrorist murder of civilians reap rewards. So much for the "lessons of 9/11." (National Post)
Strange world of prayers: MuslimPundit pens a lengthy essay entitled "
The Redundant Warriors," in which he goes inside British mosques and finds some strange things that certain Muslims are praying for...
On the road to Mecca, bash the Jews:
A sea of hajj pilgrims thronged the Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest shrine, on the last weekly prayer before the five-day pilgrimage that starts next Wednesday, to hear a sermon by the imam, Sheikh Osama Abdullah Khayyat. Sheikh Khayyat steered clear of politics in his speech but closed it with what have become traditional prayers for the triumph of Islam and defeat of Israel.
"God give your glory to Islam and Muslims," he repeatedly said to which hundreds of thousands of people responded by roaring "Amen" in a single voice.
"Lord ... defeat those tyrant Jews," the preacher added...
(Reuters)
Jews are like drowning children, but not: "The Des Moines Register offers a
revealing view on the militant Muslim mind from David Baugh, a civil-liberties lawyer who's represented al Qaeda members in court: "When the American press talks about suicide bombers, Muslims become upset for the same reason you would be upset if your son died trying to save a drowning child. Your son sacrificed his life for another. If someone walked up to you and said, 'I'm sorry about your son committing suicide,' you'd probably want to punch them." Murdering Jews, saving a drowning child--what's the difference, really?" (OpinionJournal's Best of the Web)
The "Hand of Israel": "Observers saw the hand of Israel in Bush's [State of the Union] speech." The Zionist conspiracy ratted out by
James Goldsborough in the San Diego Union Tribune.
Sudan looking to rejoin the rest of us?: Dr. Mustafa Osman Ismail, the Sudanese foreign minister, is stepping up efforts to express the commitment of his government to accept what they are calling "an internationally monitored cease-fire in southern Sudan." The minister was recently in Washington conveying that message to those who would listen, which sources close to the minister suggest is part of a campaign by the Sudanese government to get off the terrorist-supporting nation list maintained by the U.S. State Department. A source also says that FBI agents have been seen in Khartoum within the last month meeting with Sudanese intelligence officials and government ministers about ways in which the two governments can further cooperate in the war against terrorism. (from UPI's Feb. 20 Capital Comment)
Indian Jewry: Check out these pics of a synagogue in
Cochin, India.
The Right-wing Zionist conspiracy? Chris Johnson slaps around Sobran: Chris Johnson has a point-by-point pillory of Joe Sobran, who accuses modern conservatives of being Israeli lapdogs. See his "
ANTI-AMERICAN RIGHT WATCH."
Sniffs of good sense in academia: Judah Rifkin, a junior at Columbia College, pens
some sense on the Middle East:
The Israelis are fed up. Their sons and daughters are being killed at the hands of fanatical Palestinians. When collateral damage is inflicted as a byproduct of retaliation, the international community criticizes Israel. However, what the Palestinians and Yasser Arafat fail to realize is that although Israel is fed up, just like the American union, the Jewish state is stronger than ever.
... It is time to move on from the irrelevant Arafat. Bring us the next leader, and if he proves to be a terrorist, bring the next. And so on, until the Israelis are confronted by a true Palestinian leader.
Teach me a tune, so I can shoot the moon: "Iranian mullahs are sponsoring a course in Lebanon for Palestinian terrorists on how to operate SAM-7 surface-to-air missiles... Activists from the Hamas terrorist organization and from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah are being taught by Iranian trainers to hit low-flying planes or helicopters with shoulder-fired missiles that can be easily operated from almost any location." (
New York Daily News)
Loving hezbollah: Robert Fisk, after taking a pounding he felt he deserved from a bunch of Afghans has, according to
Grasshoppa, shoved "his head up Hezbollah's ass."
Who do ya trust? Edward Epstein asks, does Sadaam Hussein trust his intelligence operatives to run bombings and assassinations?
Why is the question important? The NY Times has several times said that Mohammed Atta's meeting in the Czech republic with Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani, an Iraqi intelligence officer stationed at the Iraqi Embassy in Prague, does not signify Iraqi involvement in the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
Epstein answers: "Yes. Saddam Hussein has entrusted mid-level case officers in its intelligence service with missions that supported highly-sensitive bombings and assassinations."
Its gonna be an African-American Hannukah...: I just finished reading Bernard Goldberg's
Bias. It is full of interesting information for the few people who do not understand the news media's liberal bias, but is not that enlightening for the rest of us. The story of how Goldberg was drummed out of CBS News after his Wall Street Journal op-ed on liberal media bias is engaging, but Goldberg has a chip on his shoulder the size of Texas, and it is called Dan Rather. Or rather, "The Dan," as Goldberg refers to him, following in one chapter's vein of referring to the news media as the "news mafia."
But all that is beside the point. Goldberg cites a Brill's Content magazine piece from 1999 which is, well, ridiculous. The author talks about a Greenville News reporter in South Carolina who ran head first into the Gannett newspaper chain's minority-inclusion system -- all Gannett reporters are required to include minority sources in ALL their stories.
This particular reporter had to spend hours hunting for a black person to include in a story about ...
Hannukah food! It seems that Gannett does not consider Jews a minority, so the reporter had to find someone both Jewish and a minority. The reporter was at wit's end. "I couldn't find any Ethiopian Jews... I called the synagogue and asked if they had any African Jews. They said no."
Goldberg's comment? "Too bad Sammy Davis Jr. is dead."
Screw Chimpokomon, I want the new Rabbi Moishe card! I don't know if Pokemon fever has died out yet in the U.S., but Jerusalem is all abuzz over a new trading card game.
"Torah Personalities" says the cover of one pack, referring to the name for Jewish scriptures. "Learn about our Torah leaders: collect a full set."
The new French policy: "To the extent that the French objective is to present an alternative to American policy, they certainly have succeeded. While the American approach is that terrorism is unacceptable, must not be rewarded, and must be defeated, the French have found a simple solution: Give the terrorists what they want." ("Europe's two voices,"
The Jerusalem Post. Feb. 15)
More on Purim drunken fun: My fiancee believes that
Jane Ulman is missing an additional point.
"The Purim thing is interesting, but perhaps there is an additional point that she is missing. Judiasm proscribes a very rigid lifestyle, there are many rules and restrictions. The point of Purim is that these rules are relaxed and you have a specific outlet to let your hair down and drink until you get drunk. Psycologically and sociologically this is essential for all societies. Also, getting drunk at prescribed times should theoretically limit the need to get drunk at random times. You know where your limits are - it's all written out for you..."
Yemeni Jews are few, but not going anywhere: The only reason I ever gave half a thought to Jews in Yemen was because I liked Israeli singer Ofra Haza (a woman of Yemeni background). Bob Arnot recounts for MSNBC
how the few Jews left in Yemen are faring.
Don't buy a Ford?: Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder ask that you consider Ford'
anti-semitic past.
Putting a new veneer on an old terrorist: It seems that American lobbyists and European Union civil servants are desperately trying to
fix Arafat's image. As Glenn Reynolds says, "I believe the traditional way of doing that for someone in Arafat's situation was to proffer a bottle of whiskey, and a revolver."
Nannies try to spoil the purim party: On the holiday of Purim, the Talmud commands us to drink until we "don´t know the difference between ‘Blessed Be Mordechai´ and ‘Cursed Be Haman.´ "
Jane Ulman thinks htis is a horrible idea which encourages drug abuse.
Purim, this ostensibly frivolous and farcical holiday, celebrates the triumph of good over evil. But it does so by giving the message that drinking is the way to have fun. And by espousing behavior that is dangerous, demeaning and contrary to Judaism´s commandment of shmirat haguf, preventing bodily harm. And there´s nothing good about that.
We all know someone who became an alcoholic after one celebration of Purim... don't we? I don't. If you can find one, please tell me.
In the meantime, Jane, get a life.
Farrakhan wants reconcilliation? Jew-hating racist Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, offered an olive branch at the group's national conference. Sort of. ("
Farrakhan talks the talk in L.A., but Jewish leaders want the walk." JTA)
What is terrorism, anyhow? Hard to know when you consult a U.S. government video series.
John J. Miller reviews a series of anti-terrorist training videos, finding an appalling mix of moral equivalence and misleading history.
Czech Prime Minister tells it like it is: Arafat is like Hitler: Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman has sailed into a diplomatic storm after reportedly comparing Yasser Arafat to Adolf Hitler.
Gazuntheit.
"Mr Zeman has issued a statement insisting that he has been misquoted. However, the
BBC has obtained a recording of Mr Zeman giving an interview with Israeli television, in which he does liken the Palestinian Authority to Hitler's Third Reich."
Egypt's Foreign Minister was furious: "we have asked the Czech prime minister to postpone his visit to Egypt."
Bummer.
The comparison to Hitler was made in an interview with the leading Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on Monday. Mr Zeman was quoted as saying that Israel should not have to negotiate with Mr Arafat, just as world leaders should not have negotiated with the Nazis before World War II. He was asked if he was comparing Arafat to Hitler. "Of course," the paper quoted him as replying. He was also quoted describing Palestinians as "terrorists" and saying they should be expelled from the West Bank and Gaza Strip if they did not accept Israeli peace proposals.
Palestinian Culture Minister Yasser Abd-Rabbuh did the usual turn-the-tables maneuver: "The severity of the Israeli occupation matches only that of Nazi Germany, one of the victims of which was Czechoslovakia itself."
And the European Union jumped on the bandwagon. Worried that a potential new member of the Union might have too close an attachment to such un-EU principles as "truth," they sought to sanction the Czechs. EU Speaker Jean-Christophe Filori said it was not the sort of language expected from a future member state, and the comments were "not particularly helpful" to the EU's efforts to find peace.
Staying true to principles in the Middle East: Michael Young implores Bush to stay true to his principles in the Middle East... and embrace
revisionist history?
Thomas Friedman's answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
In return for a total withdrawal by Israel to the June 4, 1967, lines, and the establishment of a Palestinian state, the 22 members of the Arab League would offer Israel full diplomatic relations, normalized trade and security guarantees. Full withdrawal, in accord with U.N. Resolution 242, for full peace between Israel and the entire Arab world. Why not? ("An Intriguing Signal From the Saudi Crown Prince")
It seems that Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has the same peace plan to propose.
So, Friedman has returned to his pre-9-11 stance - Israel just needs to make the right concessions and everything will be fine.
Except that, back in the real world, it won't. Everything will look hunky doory on paper, true. But de facto, Israel would be on a short slide to oblivion.
There are no "guarantees" when you work with most any state, but especially a dictatorship. Israel cannot enforce all those guarantees on its own, especially when the rest of the world, outside of the United States, would always take the Arab side.
Elsewhere in the NY Times, the editors want a settlement dictated and enforced by the ever-so-reliable
UN Security Council.
Meanwhile, in the news section, the NY Times interviews Arabs
who pillory Friedman's peace plan, saying it benefits Israel too much.
And this in a newspaper with a big Jewish constituency?
Killing a word: Hey, there is in fact a term for the destruction of language. More specifically, a term for the killing of a word. VERBICIDE, today's MW word of the day. Pronounced (VER-buh-syde) it is the deliberate distortion of the sense of a word.
Cold-footed canuck: Canadian PM Jean Chretien has spent serveral days badmouthing the idea of invading Iraq.
Now, he is trying to recant.
The more interesting point for me was hearing his commentary on the CBC yesterday morning. He discussed unilateral action as if it was Canada which was going to invade Iraq, not the U.S. ... or as if Canada was simply an appendage of the U.S. ... perhaps that border means even less than we thought?
The burgeoning Indian-Israeli alliance: "The timing of certain current events, the long and peculiar history of Jews and Indians and the threats to their survival appear to be heading both of them firmly towards tighter political bonds."
the Kolkata Libertarian looks back through history to see why India and Israel are moving closer together.
Not the way to heaven...: "Muslim pilgrims enraged by flight delays beat Afghanistan's aviation minister to death." (
AP)
What would France do?: Historian Victor Davis Hanson maps out what would have happened had
France been the victim of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, rather than the U.S.
Why call it an "axis"?: Hanson also explains why Bush made sense when he called North Korea, Iraq, and Iran an "axis":
Despite a number of accords, the old tripartite alliance of fascists of 60 years ago always remained a loose concord at best — characterized by constant squabbling and mistrust. That is perhaps why in their rough alignment the three preferred to be called an axis (Latin axis: "axle"), rather than emulate the close-working relationship or nomenclature of the Anglo-American allies, who shared supplies and closely coordinated strategy. Tokyo was shocked that Germany had signed a neutrality pact with Russia in August 1939 — at the very moment when its own forces were skirmishing with the Soviets. Then, tit-for-tat, Japan later refused to attack the Soviet Union on its vulnerable eastern flank — when Germany had invaded from the west and was soon outnumbered and in real trouble. In turn, the Germans were as surprised as the Americans about Pearl Harbor. Nor did they have a clue that Mussolini was going to invade the Balkans the previous spring.
Indeed, the failure of any of the three to act in concert either materially or strategically helped us to win the war. The Axis powers' vague commonality was not based on racial, religious, or even true ideological affinity. Instead, like the present threesome, they shared a common hatred toward free democracies. The idea of a loose bond between a fundamentalist Shiite Iran, a faux-Sunni Iraq, and a Communist North Korea is no more or less politically, religiously, racially, or regionally disparate than the past coalescence of Catholic Fascist Italians, atheist Nazi Germans, and militarist, anti-Western, and Buddhist Japanese.
The reluctant emperor: "We can and must win a broad-based war against terrorism and rogue states. That war has only just begun. The question is not whether we can or should win such a war, but what happens after we do. In the wake of victory, reluctant imperialism will emerge — both as a problem, and as wise policy." (
Stanley Kurtz)
Terrorists from Alberta: Lebanese authorities suspect two Canadian men, Kassem Daher and Ahmed Aboughousch, "are members of Takfir wal-Hijra, a Sunni extremist group. They also believe the group is linked to bin Laden through members who fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s. More recently, the Egyptian-based Takfir wal-Hijra has been blamed for a plot to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris after the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Daher and Mr. Aboughousch are among 24 people on trial for allegedly belonging to an organization that engaged in acts of terrorism against the state. If the allegations are proven, the men would be the latest evidence of Canada's links to Islamic terrorism." (National Post, Feb. 9)
Is it the Jewish conspiracy? Thomas Friedman (Feb. 10) tries to answer a question asked of him at a luncheon by an Arab editor. "Are Jews in the media behind the campaign to smear Saudi Arabia and Islam?" Freidman responds with another question:
My first instinct was to ask a question back: When Jewish reporters in Beirut and Israel were at the forefront in covering such stories as the Sabra and Shatila massacre of Palestinians, why did no one in the Arab world ask whether they were part of a Jewish conspiracy? When Jewish congressmen and commentators led the campaign for U.S. intervention to save the Muslims of Bosnia and Kosovo and to roll back the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf war, why did no one in the Muslim world complain about a Jewish conspiracy?
The truth is that Jewish commentators and lawmakers have probably been more outspoken in support of using American force to rescue Muslims in the last 15 years than any other group — including American Muslims.
If we outlaw bad things they will go away...: "Ethicist" Dr. Lachlan Forrow, a flack for the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), and Jaya Tiwari, flack for the Physicians for Social Responsibility, wrote an article for the
British Medical Journal on February 8 demanding the abolition of nuclear weapons.
"First, there is, in 2002, only one thing in the world that could truly destroy the U.S. as an entity, and that is an attack using the Russian nuclear arsenal, which remains on hair-trigger alert despite decaying computer and radar systems. The only way to forever prevent the use of nuclear weapons by nations or terrorists is to abolish them."
"Ultimately, the only way to eliminate this danger is to eliminate these weapons and establish strict international control of all fissile materials that could be used to make new weapons."
Rather than deal with problems in the world, many people would prefer to reclassify them as "public health issues," which allows know-nothings with medical degrees to control public affairs.
Hence, for Forrow and Tiwari: "The elimination of nuclear weapons should be high on the global public health agenda."
Never mind how we enforce international law outside of the U.S. when they oppose all means of force, if, God forbid, it will be used by the United States. PSR rightfully belongs in the European Union, the land of big bluster and craven surrender.
