GAZA BOAT STOPPED

The good news is that the boat filled with busybodies was stopped by the Israeli navy. The twenty olive trees and the sack of cement it was carrying will now be transported overland.


On the other hand....


Quote from a BBC article:
"The 20 passengers include former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire. "

[SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8127145.stm]



It really is a tragedy that the Israelis are so humane. That's a Jewish characteristic.
Were it up to me, I would have torpedoed the damn boat and shot everyone of the activists that floated to the surface.
I'm very Christian that way.


Yes, dear readers, I would have dearly loved to see Cynthia McKinney's bloated corpse floating ashore somewhere on the Sinai Peninsula.
Did I already mention that in some regards I am still very Christian?


Given the monumental human suffering that the far left have been responsible for since 1917, every one of those people really should be lined up and shot.

Stalin killed tens of millions. His successors were no better.
Mao killed tens of millions, and his successors have not been that much more humane.
Fidel Castro and Ernesto Guevara were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands.
Josif Broz Tito was an vicious thug. Ceauşescu was a psychopath. Erich Honecker passionately enjoyed killing animals, and ordered his border guards to shoot people trying to escape to the west.
European Communists unwaveringly supported violent terror in the third world, most significantly in Cambodia. Though they have since then rebranded themselves as "socialists", they still applaud the excesses of Stalin, Mao, and PolPot.
Here in the US the far left slavishly ape the Europeans in their continued support for the Venezuelan brute, the ambulatory corpse in Cuba, the petulant sexagenarian in North Korea, and the madman Mugabe.
As well as the murderers and cutthroats of Hezbollah and Hamas.


Cynthia McKinney is as loathsome and reprehensible as they come. But if she were converted to chum, she might still serve a useful purpose.

Remember, sharks are becoming endangered, and fill a valuable role in the food chain. We need the sharks.
Cynthia McKinney......? Meh, not so much.

JEWS MARCH FOR PRIDE

Yesterday was Pride Day in SF. It's actually called GLBT Pride - it used to be just Gay Pride, but various groups eventually objected to the exclusivity of that name, or the hurtful non-specificity, and it's now a totally inclusive Consonant Soup Pride.
And yes, the Bay Area Jewish Community by-and-large supports the struggle for equality of Gays and other Consonants.
So does this blogger, by the way.


This was the first year that all Jewish groups in the parade marched under the same group nomen: Jews March For Pride.
And these are my somewhat sour notes about that masochistic exercise. There will be more later.



1. Remember to leave the Glock at home next year too.
2. I really hope Ralph's head explodes before then.
3. Kate Raphael Bender is in remission from cancer. All good things must come to an end.
4. Apparently the all-inclusive Jewish community umbrella extends to those people so desperate to get away from Judaism that they not only collaborate with Jew-haters and anti-Semitic organizations, but also actively seek Israel's complete elimination as an independent state.
5. In the Bay Area, inclusion of a pro-Israel group requires demanding that they be on their best behaviour.
6. It also means that you can safely allow the Israel-haters to march with you - having included the pro-Israel group gives balance, and you've made sure that your donkey is covered.
7. Really, keep the Glock at home. Don't even load it, just leave it in the box. Lest a natural urge to go Dutch on some of the donkey-holes among the Political Jews(*) gain the upper hand. In the blah lukewarmth of the moment.



Yes, I know that being Jewish in the San Francisco Bay Area suggests to many people here that one should make nice-nice, not make waves, smile prettily at the Gentiles, and timidly hope that every nasty storm somehow magically dissipates. This is the place where people come to avoid their relatives, get away from their own kind, make new lives, and chuck all that depressing cultural baggage out the window. Long-time residents often become spongy cottonwool because of their urge not to make waves or offend their politically correct fellow travelers.


The Bray made mention on Dov's blog of 'havdala consciousness'. Despite the loud groans from many commenters, and my own cocked eye-brow at that time, I'm beginning to think that what the Bay Area Jewish Community needs is a strong infusion of precisely that.

Plus assertiveness training and pointers on handguns.

----------------------------------------------------------------

NOTE

Political Jews (PJs) are those Jews who are paid for being Jewish. Usually they work for well-known Jewish organizations advancing various Jewish causes or programs. Strictly nine to five. Their involvement in political action, promotion of Jewish causes and issues, and even loyalty to Jewishness itself, is also strictly nine to five. Their ideological commitment in any direction at all is .... nine to five. They are adept at NOT making waves. They are also very good at making Gentiles feel blandly cheerful about those Jews. Not necessarily warm and fuzzy - actual Jewishness still seems to discomfit a surprising number of Gentiles - but blandly cheerful.
I have been told that they are worthwhile people and serve a worthwhile purpose.


POST-SCRIPTUM:
Remember, dude, keep the Glock at home. It ain't worth it. Just leave it there.

MICHAEL JACKSON, SEX, AND TEENAGERS

Amid all the doom and gloom of the past few days, there are a few bright spots.
Sure, like many people, billions of 'em in fact, I am in dark despair over the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Like you, I spent a large part of my twenties and thirties grooving endlessly to the mellifluous beats of Michael's soulful ballads on the juke box, while dreaming of fondling the hands of Farrah Fawcett, perhaps imaginging myself one of her busty but less-competent associates in an episode of Charlie's Angels. The seventies or eighties were magical decades. And like you, I no doubt think back fondly to the stellar fashions of that age - the pumped hair, the tight tight shiny shirts with wide lapels, the white pants that showed off my snake-like hips.
Oh yes, far out, and like wow, totally.


Dude.


But anyway, bright spot: the ongoing war between Snooky Wong and Grant Patel. Snooky hates Grant with a passion at this point. A passion that requites his emotional investment in bucket loads. Grant should be so pleased - she's deigned to notice him. No longer will he have to sit up and bark for attention.


She writes:
"Yes, Grantipuke, you ARE THE MOST DISGUSTING HAHMSAPLO in San Francisco!!!!!!
I really cannot think of a more odious and degenerate person as yourself. No wonder you are not married. "

http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-wich-i-tell-mister-patel-to-shove-it.html


I confess a similarity with Grant here. I too have been described as a hahmsaplo.
It happened after I leaned over a counter and oozed: "wah, siu-jieh, Ney tsan-hai hooooo-leeeeeng-ge...., Ney kiew meh meeeeeeeng, ah?".

You do not need to know what that means.

Hahmsaplo translates as salty (hahm) moist (sahp) fellow (lo). Hahm is the flavour of fish, or the reek of gym clothes. Sahp is juicy like fruit or wet like the floor after you've spilled a drink. Lo is more often applied to older men, especially those of dubious Chineseness. A white man is a kwailo - a foreign ghost-devil demon fellow.

So, as you can now understand, hahmsaplo really means dirty old pervert.

It was therefore perfectly appropriate when the teenager at the bakery snapped that term in my direction after I had asked her name. The frisson was precisely what the doctor ordered. And no, Savage Kitten does not need to know about that. It happened before I met her in any case. Water under the bridge.

I digress.


Snooky Wong also writes:
"I will admit that the concept of sex has a certain limited intellectual interest. Until I was thirteen, I did not even wonder about gender differences or whatever it is that married people get up to when they think the neighbors can't hear."


This must be typically female. The men in my circle of acquaintance all thought about sex one hundred percent of the time by age thirteen. I may be wrong, but though entirely hypothetical, the interest was not at all intellectual in nature.

At least I don't think so.


Snooky continues:
"But if I wonder in anyway about it at all, you odious Parsee creep, it is rarely, and always purely speculative, and in the abstract. You, on the other hand, are depraved and desperate, and seem to have nothing else on your mind. Ever!!!!!
And you are at least forty years older than me! Sick pig man! "


After reading Grant's comments underneath several of her posts, and also after reading his own blog, it is clear that Snooky Wong is one hundred percent accurate in her judgment.
If I had a daughter that Grant Patel was cyber-stalking, I would purchase a double-barreled shotgun. I suspect, however, that Grant is neither really persuasive, nor capable of actually pursuing the matter. His interest in Snooky, while undoubtedly depraved, seems mostly an intellectual fancy.


Judge for yourself:

Grant Patel demonstrating a taunting taste for masochism
http://grantpatel.blogspot.com/2009/06/whip-me-beat-me-call-me-edna.html

Grant waxing lyrical about the prospect of a Cantonese teenager on a motorbike
http://grantpatel.blogspot.com/2009/06/petite-gold-skin-crash-helmet-lace-most.html


It is highly unlikely that a young Cantonese American girl would feel even remotely interested in the writer of those two posts. About the only thing possible is a cold, clinical curiosity. Perhaps a desire to poke Grant with a sharp stick when he is sleeping on his rock in the bright sun. To see if he oozes.
Grant Patel no doubt understands this.
I have little doubt that for his own workaday entertainment he sought to irritate the spit out of Snooky.
He seems to have succeeded.

I, for one, am titillated. Dude.

LAMENTING MICHAEL JACKSON

Apparently, I was wrong. I had heard from VERY reliable sources that Michael Jackson died screaming "oh no, I'm melting, I'm melting" after being inadvertently splashed with water.
So had several other people (approximately 22% of respondents), but it turns out that such is NOT the case.
I apologize. We were wrong, I admit it, and it SO won't happen again.

Michael Jackson swallowed his nose and choked to death. It was accidental.

This per a decisive 51.50% of respondents.


WRONG TOO!

That means all of you who were certain that he had drowned in a peroxide bath were also wrong (11% of respondents), and you owe his bereaved fans an apology. So do the people who spread the evil rumour that it was direct sunlight that did him in (8.50% of respondents) - he hasn't been out in the sun for years, he has people for that.

The story about the Masonic Murder Plot involving rare allergens woven into his bedsheets, as well as the Neo-Hollywood Diet Theory (4.25% and 2.25% respectively), are also absurd. What WERE you thinking?!?
And you guys who proposed the Clarified Lard Cult theory (0.25% of respondents) are JUST PLAIN NUTS. Absolutely out of your friggen' minds.
Buncha redneck morons.


I shan't even mention the 'Venusian Breeding Programme', the 'Tennessee Younger Sister Support Group', or 'Priestly Recruitment, Inc.' - they aren't statistically important.
Crazy as a loon, but not important.
We know where you all live anyway, just in case you plan to try something later.


THE GOOD NEWS: WE FINALLY GET ELVIS BACK!


Yes, it was hard without him for thirty! two! long! years! - but since we elected Obama, they have changed their opinion of us, and decided to make do with Michael instead. Such a relief. Yay.

CHILD SAFETY

One of my friends is presently strapped for time because of a child-safety seminar that he must organize. I feel for him, and to do my part to lighten his burden, I take it upon myself to speak briefly on the subject. I hope that he will find my expertise useful.

Child safety is very important. Most new parents, AND many educators, tend to overlook the obvious. Here are what I consider the most important child safety rules or tips.


20 CHILD SAFETY PROTOCOLS

1. Do not open wrong end.
2. Do not operate while driving.
3. Always wear gloves.
4. Avoid contact with eyes.
5. Contents under pressure.
6. Any part can be an off-switch - just twist.
7. Do not feed after mid-night.
8. May discolour upon impact.
9. Check for defects ere purchase.
10. Removal of cover invalidates warranty.
11. Contents shift during transit.
12. May cause temporary insanity.
13. Do not use on hard surfaces.
14. Can not be used as a car alarm.
15. Dispose of properly.
16. Lock up between use.
17. Store in a cool dark place.
18. Sterilize frequently.
19. Sugar already included.
20. Discard if damaged or loud.


With proper precautions it should last a lifetime. All warranties expire once ambulation has taken place. For maximum enjoyment you may wish to delay that moment as long as possible - use horse tranquilizers (any popular brand - ask your vet for recommendations).
Also note that the product interferes with sleep - earplugs and restraints are highly recommended.
Obey local leash laws.
That is all.

PAPRIKA: RED CHICKEN AND PURKULT

Treppenwitz mentions that he and his eyshes chayil had dinner at a shakshuka place in Tel Aviv. Now, for those who don't know, shakshuka is an Israeli dish that involves eggs, peppers, and tomatoes.

http://www.treppenwitz.com/2009/06/i-cant-believe-i-ate-almost-the-whole-thing.html


One of the key passages in his post is this:
"Don't people wear clothes in Tel Aviv! I mean seriously, who needs 'pron' when you can simply stroll through the mall and be literally assaulted by thongs, bikini lines and boob jobs for free? And irony of irony, I forgot to wear my concealed holster for my gun (which I try to do when in Tel Aviv), so as we walked through the mall, people were glaring at me like I'd just opened my raincoat to flash a bunch of girl scouts! "
See, that's an attention grabber right there. Go on over and read the entire thing.
And if you feel that in order to truly understand the Treppenwitzian gestalt you must flash a bunch of girl scouts, so be it.

[Note: Little Chinese-American Girl Scouts would probably be best. Their screams are high-pitched and piercing, they can produce more volume than an equivalent number of little blondes, their outrage is both more fierce, and more deliciously indignant. Let me know what you think.]

I've just got to visit Tel Aviv one of these days.



SEGUE SIDEWAYS

Of course, Treppenwitz's post immediately reminded me of a posting on Dovbear's blog from two years ago, right after Tisha B'Av.
http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007/07/howd-it-go-chevra.html


The key that connects these two posts consists of peppers and tomatoes. Not girl scouts.
Dov has, to my knowledge, never mentioned girls scouts (probably an oversight).

Dovbear has, however, spoken of Holishkes, Delkelech, Shlishkes, Nokrln (nokerly), Kokkos, and Rockett-Crumbly.
Also referenced at some point were Makkos and Diyusz, Gulyasz and Lekvar.
Plus Letsho.
This was in another Dovbearian post (which also made no mention of girl scouts).

[Stuffed cabbage (gevikkelde krote/holupches/golubzhi) filled with meat, rice, poppy seeds; Type of filled turnover; Potato dumplings twixt gnocchi and tater tots (fried); Little boiled dumplings; Rolled yeast-dough chocolate cake; Casserole of potato layers, sliced onion, and hardboiled eggs baked in butter and smetana.
A kokkos made with poppy seed filling and a kokkos made with ground up walnuts.
Meat stewed with peppers, paprika, onion, and garlic; and a dense plum or apricot goop to fill pastries, which are also valled lekvar.
Sautéed and seethed onions, peppers, and tomatoes, often with eggs or sausage.]


http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2008/02/pop-food-quiz.html


Some people would argue that letsho HAS to be flavoured with paprika.
As does nearly all other food.

My mother added paprika to almost everything. Rice? Add paprika! Eggs? Add paprika! Chicken? Add paprika! Hamburger patties? Brown bean soup? Add paprika! Add paprika! Tomato salad? Add .......
She even made spaghetti sauce with paprika.

The other spice she loved was caraway seed.

Which brings us to today's recipe.



CHICKEN PAPRIKASZ

1 whole chicken (about 3 pounds), cut into 8 pieces.
2 garlic cloves, minced.
2 onions, thinly sliced.
2 - 4 Tbsp sweet Hungarian paprika.
1/2 cup chicken stock.
4 Tbsp sour cream (*).
A very generous pinch of ground caraway seed.
Olive oil, or butter, or bacon grease (*).
Salt and pepper.

Gild the onions and garlic. Rub the chicken bits with oil, plus salt, pepper, and some of the paprika. Add to the pan and brown slightly. Now add the remaining paprika and the ground caraway, stir to mix, and add the chicken stock and enough water to barely cover. Simmer for about half an hour, then stir in the sour cream.
Garnish with plenty of chopped parsley.

(*) If you keep kosher, only use olive oil, and omit the sour cream. In which case, use less paprika.

You would probably also like purkult: diced meat simmered with onions, peppers, paprika, and wine. Tomato may be included, but it is better without. Just rely on the onions, peppers, paprika, and wine to make the sauce zesty. A pinch of caraway may also be added. Simmer till the sauce has been reduced considerably and the tough gamey meat softened.

===================================================

AFTERTHOUGHT

The Little Chinese-American Girl Scouts mentioned above can probably be pacified by a good meal. They'll still justifiably consider you a horrid pervert and an ugly hairy monster, but they'll be in a much better mood after eating at a nice Hungarian restaurant.
Far less murderous in any case; you want them less murderous.

IN PRAISE OF THE BURKA

Recently French President Sarkozy spoke out against the Burka, saying that it had no place in civilized society.

Respectfully, I beg to differ. Nothing could be MORE civilized than the Burka.


Not only is the Burka a graceful all-purpose garment, but it states assertively that the wearer is no submissive slave to fashion - by no means, even, as she has rejected the exorbitant prices charged by French Couturiers, and the exploitation of the female form for the purposes of male delectation!
Wearing her Burka, she proudly tells the world "none of your business", in response to wolfish glances in her direction. She has no truck with mere superficiality, or the shallow emphasis on a stylish appearance.


The Burka, more than any other garment, reasserts a dignity for the wearer, free from the chains of the French and Italian obsession with expensive designer shmattot!


Here in fashion-deprived San Francisco, the Burka could also serve a splendid purpose.


A few weeks ago, while enjoying a pipe outdoors, a whole host of elderly men wearing dresses and high-heels trooped by. Several of them had even bowed to the dictates of feminazi fashion by applying lipstick and rouge, the poor dears, and not very well at that! Their fragile crepe-like skin merely served to highlight the artificiality and garishness of such alleged aids to beauty. Truly, shmears of raw colour do not accent faces, but merely attract the startled glance.
It is my considered opinion that whatever purpose their tripping about gaily in their pretty dresses may have had, would have been more nobly served had they but worn burkas!
How dignified that would have been! Think of the majesty, think of the gravitas!


Think of large floral patterns.


And above all, think of the little children, whose impressionable minds so easily absorb the example set by people wearing crimson lipstick, tight corsets, and frilly summer frocks cinched just ever so, with the top-surface of exaggerated bosomage in full view!
What must they think? What can they think? When such things are common and unquestioned, it affects their little minds, and they absorb feudal gender roles without any hope of resisting!
Haute couture, like badly applied make-up, only masks the true beauty within.

Surely little boys and girls DESERVE to grow up free from sexist tyranny?

IRAN: A MIDDLE CLASS REVOLUTIONARY FAILURE

Yesterday evening there was a candle-light vigil for the Iranian election protestors at UN Plaza. Nearly one thousand mostly Iranian-Americans gathered to speechify softly, shield flickering flames from the wind, and lament the crackdown.
Many held signs recalling Miss Neda Agha Soltan, 27 years old, gunned down by the Basiji at the intersection of Saheli Street and Khosravi Street in Tehran on Saturday.
[She was not involved in the protests. She was merely a spectator. Wrong place, wrong time.]



Twenty years ago there had been demonstrations supporting the Tiananmen protestors at the same spot in San Francisco.
I could not help but recall those days. Both movements are startlingly similar.


The Tiananmen reformers did not question the fundament of their society; they had been brought up within it, and took many of its codes of behaviour and assumptions for granted. They supported a dissident member of the establishment, for reasons that in themselves were supportive of the establishment. They themselves represented a privileged and in many ways self-isolated strain of their society. And most crucially, despite their seemingly great numbers, they did not represent a majority point-of-view, nor an ideological strain with any great resonance among other levels of society.


Twenty years ago the Tiananmen revolt was crushed. Then life went on as normal for everyone else.


I have little doubt that this "revolution" in Iran will also be crushed. And no, even if the outside world were to massively aid the dissidents, they would not succeed - outside interference would more than likely make their defeat more certain, their deaths more brutal.
The American and European love for 'reformers' often overlooks the nature of the idolized group - what these people wish to change, they wish to change because it does not work for them. They are not liberals as we understand the term. They aren't necessarily even idealists. And, crucially, they only represent a subset of a minority social stratum, they do not represent the demands and aspirations of the entire populace.
The masses will gladly watch the Basiji and police squelch the protests of what are mostly disaffected university students and urban intelligentsia.
Most of the Iranian population distrust the reformers more than they distrust the system.

CULTURAL CODFISH

Sometimes it is cruelly apparent to me that Savage Kitten and I come from entirely different cultures. Cultures so staggeringly at odds that the chasm is nigh unbridgeable.

Her musical tastes were formed in the seventies and eighties, mine predate industrialization.

She hums ABBA and Madonna. I sing old-fashioned ballads like 'The Winnipeg Whore', 'Harlot of Jerusalem', and 'The Ring Dang Doo'.


And also airs like the following.


THE CODFISH SONG

Once there was a man who had a little horse.
He saddled it and bridled it and threw his leg across.

Idiotic refrain: eye tilly eye, eye tilly eye, eye tilly eye tilly eye tigh yigh!

He rode and rode until he came to a brook,
And there sat a fisherman a-baiting of his hook.

'Oh, fisherman, oh fisherman,' said he,
'Have you a codfish for my tea?'

'Oh yes sir course sir I've got two,
There's a one for me and a one for you.'

Well, he took that codfish by the tail bone
Mounted on his horse and galloped back home.

But when he got home he couldn't find a dish,
Into the chamber pot he popped his little fish.

All night long his old woman cried,
'There's the devil down below I can see his beady eyes!'

And when next the morning she sat down to squat,
The codfish jumped up her you-know-what.

She cried bloody murder and well cried she,
'There's a bloody big something a-getting up me!'

She hopped and she jumped and she gave a mighty roar.
And there went the codfish a-skating round the floor.

They chased that codfish all around the room,
They hit him with a brush and bashed him with a broom.

First they hit him on the belly and they hit him on the side,
They hit him on his ass until the poor bugger died.

Now the moral of this song is easy for to find,
Nobody got his eyes up behind,

So ya better be sure before you squat,
There's nothing swimming in the chamber pot.



See, lyrics like this come from a kinder, gentler America.
An America that knew narrative cohesion, and believed that not everything could be reduced to mere sexual innuendo.
A different, and more profound world.

ISRAELI COUSCOUS AT TRADER JOE'S

One of the things which the pro-Palestinian activists who are behind the Trader Joe's action assert is that couscous represents an Israeli cultural appropriation or theft of something originally "Palestinian".

It is an absurd claim on the face of it.
Couscous is not Palestinian, but Berber. It is a staple in North Africa and the Sahel region, though not uncommon in Egypt and the Levant. It has also been eaten for centuries in France and Sicily, Greece and Cyprus. It was known in Italy as a Jewish food.
Even today, couscous is a traditional part of the diet of North African and Mizrahi Jews.



ISRAELI COUSCOUS

Ptitim (פתיתים אפויים = p'titim afuyim = baked flakes), however, is a pasta product that resembles Italian orzo. Unlike North African couscous, it is not raw-rolled semolina at all but a baked wheat product.


From Wikipedia:Ptitim was invented during the austerity period in Israel, when rice was scarce and in order to provide the needs of the Mizrahi immigrants, whose diets were largely made up of rice and couscous. Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, asked Eugen Propper, one of the founders of the Osem food company, to quickly devise a wheat-based substitute to rice. Consequently, it was nicknamed "Ben-Gurion's Rice" by the people.

The company agreed to the challenge and developed ptitim, which is made of hard wheat flour and roasted in an oven. The product was instantly a success and not too long after ptitim made in the shape of small, dense balls (which the company termed "couscous") was added to the original rice-shaped ptitim.
[CUT]
Commonly, ptitim is prepared, with sautéed onions or garlic (vegetables, meat, chicken or sausages can also be added), the ptitim is then added, and fried for a short time before adding water. Ptitim can also be used as a substitute for pasta or rice. They can also go in soup, can be baked, can be served as a pie, or made as a risotto
[SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptitim]



DE-SHELVING ISRAELI PRODUCTS

From the letter demanding that Trader Joe's cease selling Israeli Couscous as well as several other products:
" .. the names of products such as "Israeli Couscous" are offensive as they allow a state that was created sixty years ago --[cut]-- to claim a type of couscous that was traditionally produced by Palestinians and other Arabs for generations. This is racist advertising for cultural theft .. "



CULTURAL THEFT?

Rice, tea, cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cassia, turmeric, coconut, tamarind, citrus fruits, paper, silk, soy beans, lacquer, porcelain, distilled alcohol .........
Peanuts, okra, ivory, coffee .........
Tomatoes, potatoes, chiles, chocolate, tobacco, corn, vanilla .........
Plastic, stainless steel, modern medicine, the internal combustion engine, radio, computers, synthetic fabrics, telecommunications .........


This world could not function without cultural (especially culinary) cross-fertilization.

Much of our modern diet is the direct result of Dutch and Chinese plant-cultivation - the common orange-hued carrot, as just one example, was developed by Dutch market-gardeners during the Golden Age - but the contributions from the Americas, Asia, and Africa have also been vast.



CALL TO BOYCOTT

Never-the-less, I expect the following organizations and individuals to make do without any of the foods and inventions which are listed above.

ACTION FOR A PROGRESSIVE PAKISTAN, AMERICAN JEWS FOR A JUST PEACE, ANOTHER JEWISH VOICE, SANTA FE, BAY AREA INTERNATIONAL JEWISH ANTI-ZIONIST NETWORK, BIRTHRIGHT UNPLUGGED, BDS BAYAREA, BOSTON BDS, BOSTON COALITION FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS, BREAK THE SIEGE, BURNSVILLE AND EAGAN, MINNESOTA PEACE VIGILS, CAMPAIGN TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID – SOUTHERN, CHARLOTTE 4 PEACE, GLOBAL JUSTICE PROJECT, HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION SERVICE - MO, INTERFAITH WITNESS FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE, JUSTICE FIRST FOUNDATION, JUSTICE FOR PALESTINIANS, OPT OUT!, OWL’S NEST NORTH COLLABORATION, PEOPLE AGAINST HATE SPEECH, QUEERS UNDERMINING ISRAELI TERRORISM (QUIT!), SAN JOSE PEACE AND JUSTICE CENTER, SOUTH ALAMEDA PEACE AND JUSTICE COALITION , SOUTH ASIAN COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, SOUTH BAY MOBILIZATION FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE, STUDENTS UNITED FOR PALESTINIAN EQUAL RIGHTS, THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST US TERROR WEAPONS, THE OREGON CAMPAIGN TO END ISRAELI APARTHEID, TRI-CITY PEACE AND JUSTICE, US CAMPAIGN FOR THE ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL, VETERANS AGAINST TORTURE, VETERANS FOR PEACE, WESPAC FOUNDATION, WOMEN IN BLACK - LA, TOM ABERNETHY, SALMA ABY AYYASH, CAMBRIDGE, KAMAL AHMED, CHARLOTTE ALBRECH, SALEM AJLUNI, YASMINE ALKHATIB, HANNAH ALLEN, D ALWAN, AHMAD AMARA, ERIC ANDERSON, JUDY ANDLER, JAHAN ANSTAN, LOUISE ANTONY, THOMAS ASH, DEVIN ATALLAH, TERESE ATALLAH, HIMA B, MIKE BALDWIN, JANE BARK, SUSAN BARNEY, KATHLEEN BARRY, BEN BARSON, JAN BAUMAN, KHALIL BENDIB, GRETA BERLIN, BOB BOWES, UMAYYAH CABLE, ELLEN CANTAROW, GEORGE CAPACCIO, CHARLOTTE CASEY, JOHN CASSEL, JOYCE CASSEL, MARGARET CERULLO, PETER CHABAREK, CORTNEY CHILDS, DANIEL CLAYTON, SUSAN CURTISS, DEEMA DABIS, HUMA DAR, L DAVIDSON, WALT DAVIS, KATHLEEN DENSMORE, DAVID DIXON, JACK DRESSER, SUSAN DUNCAN, MARTHA DWYER, JANET EISELEY, JEAN ENTINE, HEDY EPSTEIN, KRISTI ERLICH, SHERIF FAM, SURA FARAJ, FRANCIS FEELEY, DAVID FIELDER, JULIA FIGUEIRA-MCDONOUGH, ROBERT FITZPATRICK, CHRIS FORD, MANZAR FOROOHAR, KARIN FRIEDEMANN, MELISSA FROILAND, SHALINI GERA, PROF JOHN GERASSI, ELIANE HAGOPIAN, KATHERINE HANNA, SWANEAGLE HARIJAN, KATHARINA HARLOW, MARTIN HARWAYNE, JANICE HAYDEN, JEAN HAYS, PAT HENDRICKS, CHARLIE HINTON, JOSHUA HOUGH, LYDIA HOWELL, JAY HUBBELL, MARY HUGHES, HAPPY HYDER, SUMIA IBRAHIM, HAYAT IMAM, MARY IZETT, A JARRAR, JANE JEWELL, PETER KARDAS, CASSANDRA KATSIAFICAS, JUNE KENAGY, REEMA KHAN, LOU KIPNIS, VIDULA KIRTIKAR, VICTOR KIZASKI, ALICE KLEIN, DAVID KLEIN, JEFF KLEIN, JANET KOBREN, JUDITH KOLOKOFF, JOEL KOVEL, GREG KOZICZ, BADAR KUDSI, JANE KURINSKY,PAUL LARUDEE, CECILE LENEMAN, HOWARD LENOW, MICHAEL LETWIN, MARIAH LEUNG, JOSEPH LEVINE, SCOTT LINDER, MICHAEL LYON, SUNAINA MAIRA, MICHAEL MARIA, ALICE MARSHALL, IVAN MARTIN, SAHAR MASUD, TANIA MAXWELL, HANNAH MEDROW, RASHA MHMOUD, SERGIO MONTEIRO, DORINDA MORENO, MICHEL MOUSHABECK, DR NANCY MURRAY, HIRA NABI, FARRUKH NAJMI, SHAHEEN NAZERALI, DAVID NELSON, MARCY NEWMAN, DOROTHY NAOR, ANA NOGUEIRA, KAMAL OBEID, DAVID OBERWEISER, IVAN OLSEN, MARCELLO PETRIGH, ANGELA PRICE, REV JOHN PROCHASKA, YASMIN QURESHI, MAZIN QUMSIYEH, BILL RAMSEY, ANNE REMLEY, FREDERICK REMLEY, GREGORY RIENZO, ROSALIE RIENZO, JOHN ROBERTS, KATHY ROBERTS, PAULA ROCHELLE, JULIE RUFO, ALAMEDA, AMIN SABA, DINA SABA, FADI SABA, NELLIE SABA, RAKSHANDA SALEEM, CAROLYN SCARR, SKIP SCHIEL, HANNAH SCHWARZSCHILD, JON SEIGE, BILL SELLSAHAR SHAFQAT, SAID SHEHADEH, ANNA SHENK, LENORE SHERIDAN, SNEHAL SHINGAVI, MOAZZAM SHIEKH, CATHERINE SHINN, SAUL SLAPIKOFF, EVE SPANGLER, JOHN SPRITZLER, RAMKUMAR SRIDHARAN, A STEK, CORNELIA SULLIVAN, IJAZ SYED, ALLYSON TAYLOR,JOHN THIELKING, KIN TILSEN, SAADIA TOOR, JAMES VANN, DONALD VEACH, NICOLE VOLZ, NABIL WAHBEH, DARLENE WALLACH, DONNA WALLACH, KATHLEEN WANG, LARRY WARTEL, AHMAD YAMAK, NADIA YASSA, JAMAL ZEID, MAGGIE ZHOU.


In fact, rather than merely expecting them to do without, I must insist that they cease using the products listed above.

As concerned people and organizations they support the call to boycott. Now they should show their sincerity by their example.
Admittedly that might set their life-style back a few thousand years - right about stone-age level - but they have to try. It's the very least they can do.
It's a matter of principle.

TRADER JOE'S AND ANTI-SEMITES

As if the usual idiocy from the ultra-fringe weren't enough, now the pro-Palestinians wish to "de-shelve" Israeli products at Trader Joe's stores. Predictably this nonsense originated in California.
Names such as Yasmin Qureishi, Kate Raphael Bender, IJAN, The South Bay Mobilization, San Francisco Women in Black, and other known "sympathizers" are associated with the plan.
Sofar it is merely food owned by someone else that they wish to shoplift or destroy - apparently they have no intention of discarding their computers, cell-phones, text-message and anti-spam software, medications, or any other products which have Israeli content.


But couscous, that they will do without. And they demand that you stop eating it also.


This blogger does not consume couscous - I will force myself to start eating it now.


"Israeli or pearl couscous tastes more like barley than traditional couscous, with a large, pearly grain that pops in the mouth. It's slightly chewy and utterly delicious."
[Source: http://www.thekitchn.com/ this post: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/noodles-pasta-and-grains/trader-joes-pantry-harvest-grains-blend-033688 Trader Joe's Pantry: Harvest Grains Blend]

Sounds yummy!

And here's a great recipe:
http://www.shutterbean.com/israeli-couscous-with-zucchini-lentils/
Please note that the recipe includes feta cheese. I believe that 'Pastures Of Eden Feta Cheese' would be an excellent choice!


"Israeli couscous goes well with grilled scapegoat".
[Source: http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/06/latest_anti-israel_idiocy_trad.php]

Alas, no recipe provided. But young goat (available at Halal markets) rubbed with garlic, zatar, and olive oil, grilled over coals, would probably be very good. Some zhug and pita bread alongside, and you have a feast!



A SNOOK AT YOU!

I was alerted to the insanity by fellow-blogger Snooky Wong, whose two posts on the subject can be found here: http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/06/couscous-and-feta.html
and here: http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-israeli-food.html
[The first one linked is very long, as it quotes the odious letter from Yasmin Qureishi. The second post is shorter, but provides links to several other bloggers. The lesson you should learn from these two posts is not to mess with a Cantonese woman's food. Don't even think of it. Just don't.]


As a snarky nose-thumb at the Arab-American activists and their groupies, she writes: "See, Israel is more diverse, by a VERY WIDE MARGIN, than any of the Arab countries. And the Arabs don't appear to like anybody but themselves - except, of course, for the Philippinas and other female guest-workers whom they rape at the drop of a hat in the Gulf States, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia - and would you care to guess about the perpetrators of a very large number of violent sex crimes in Europe?"

Well, that is true....... Israel is vastly more diverse than any of the Arab countries, possibly excepting the Gulf States - where, as she also mentions, the rape and sexual exploitation of Philippinas and other foreign females employed domestically is a regular occurrence. Perhaps that is why the Gulf-States are so diverse - sexual appetites vary enormously.

Regarding the perps of sex-crimes in Europe, the number of rapes committed by Arabs in the Netherlands, Belgium, and France is staggering (per articles in the Algemeen Dagblad and other newspapers). In Holland, the term for pimps who force young girls into prostitution is "lover boy". Many of the 'lover boys' are Arab-Netherlanders, most of their under-age victims are ethnically Dutch. It's a problem of epidemic proportions. So also, the incidence of sexual harassment and gang-rape in places like Gouda and Rotterdam, which have significant Arab populations.
Such things rather suggest to many native Dutch that a large number of Arab immigrants is not a good thing.

You'll be glad to know that there is NO evidence that consumption of Israeli Couscous or Pastures of Eden Feta Cheese leads to sexual violence.

On the other hand, I shall studiously be avoiding dates and figs from such places as Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere in the Arab world, as I have no need to subsidize the brutalization of women and migrant workers.



BUY ISRAELI PRODUCTS DAY
June 19 & 20, 2009.

The boycot activists intend to start their campaign this weekend - June 19 & 20. They have taken their cue from the thugs who invaded the Carrefour supermarkets around Paris, destroying merchandise and threatening shoppers, as well as the half-wits who committed theft and vandalism at Tesco in Britain.
Trader Joe's has already let it be known that it has no intention of giving in. The rest is up to you. Please continue shopping for Israeli products at Trader Joe's.

=========================================

PLEASE NOTE: No Philippinas or other female workers were harmed in the writing of this post. This blogger is generally in favour of Philippinas and other female workers, and would not think of harming them.

HOT CHICKS AND MOTOR BIKES

There! How's that for a killer title? It certainly is a charming conceit. Yet it actually might become reality in San Francisco Chinatown one or two years hence.

Teenage Cantonese American blogger Snooky Wong writes that what she really wants for her graduation is a motorbike.


http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/06/motorbike.html


Quote:
"Harleys have nice round parts, and are solidly built"

Okay. I'll take your word for it. I don't know beans about bikes. Nice round parts are a good thing?


Then she writes:
"...the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R --[cut]-- has a huge 1,199cc digitally fuel-injected engine for "unparalleled handling and cornering agility" - doesn't that sound exciting? And it looks unapologetically feminine....."

Unapologetically feminine?


Pictures of the Kawasaki Ninja can be found here:
http://www.burbankkawasaki.com/web_220304/web/street_2005/street_2005_main.htm


From reading Snooky's blog, we know that she is "four and half feet tall and barely sixteen, you freak!"
The motorbike she wants looks huge, and is described on Burbank Kawasaki's webpage as having "mind-boggling power", "brute muscle" and "raw acceleration".
Methinks the only entity here that is 'unapologetically feminine' is miss Wong herself. But no matter. If she wants a heavy duty set of wheels, she will probably end up with precisely that.

The world may never recover.


Fellow blogger, blog-reader, and all-round perverse fetishist Grant Patel reacted by writing: "What better advocacy of big musculated bikes than a delicate miss with chrome and leather and brass and enamel! Oh yes, baby baby baby!"

Grant Patel is, as Snooky once put it, a freak.

It would be no surprise if she used her "big musculated" bike to run him down.


Grant Patel also gibbered on about black lace and prawn curry in his various over-the-top comments. The idea of a petite Cantonese girl on a motor bike sparked his imagination.
Which is quite understandable.
Even I am enchanted by the concept.

WHAT'S THAT SMELL?

Yesterday's post was not suitable for students at a Modern-Orthodox middle school. This per reader Telmac in a comment. It took me several hours to understand why. Was it the mention of a stomach? Skin hair? The suggestions of anthropomorphic totemism?
Then it hit me - I had said that my significant other and I were in bed reading.
In bed! Together! Which must mean sex! Sexuality is implied! Gasp!
No wonder that post was problematic.

Very well then, today's post will NOT be objectionable in any way.



SEBUM

Despite Savage Kitten's fiercely voiced repulsion, sebum is a wondrous substance. Without sebum, our lives would be drier and far less smooth. Sebum is blessed.

Think in terms of the following lipid content: 41% triglycerides, 25% wax monoesters, 16% free fatty acids, and 14% squalene.

That, really, is all you need to know about sebum.



CHILES AND TOBACCO

There are times when smells produced by this blogger drive Savage Kitten out of the room. Often these are either from my full-bodied pipe tobacco, or my cooking.
Good strong smells - why she flees from them is baffling.

Yesterday evening I wished to dine on albondigas en chile verde. So I rolled some lovely fatty meatballs, and set about preparing the chile verde sauce. This necessitated fire-roasting several green peppers and cleaning them. The capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) thus rendered gaseous drove her coughing and hacking out of the kitchen.

Sorry. Smells good to me, though.

Half an hour later, the aroma of bubbling chile sauce, as well as the grilling meatballs, lured her back in, nose twitching. Once the sauce started to reach the right thickness and oleagenous appearance (slick, and having a glossy sheen, due to the vegetable matter softening and breaking into a smooth pulpy state), I started cooking rice. Savage Kitten's nose continued twitching, and she told me about her day - something having to do with the database program at work. When the rice was parboiled, I drained it and placed it over boiling water to steam.
Then I lit up a pipe. She promptly fled.

Sorry. Smells good to me, though.

She had already eaten, so I enjoyed my albondigas en chile verde by myself. Chile peppers have a strange effect on me, which may be unique - I have never heard of anyone else experiencing it. If the peppers are nice and hot, I feel a sharp sting in my back. The sensation of a warm prickle in the mouth will be accompanied by a fiery heat-stabbing just below my right shoulder-blade, near the spine.

Which is precisely where the sebaceous cyst is. That being a deposit of keratins and lipids enclosed subdermally.
Due to its size and location, I often refer to it as "my evil twin Skippy, who is growing out of my back". Skippy is about the size of a silver dollar. Skippy responds to capsaicin in food.
I don't know why. It just happens. It's weird.

Feel the burn, oooh baby. Skippy is happy.

Later I was scratching an itchy spot on my back. This would not be remarkable, and you would never even wish to know, but I need to report that my evil twin Skippy seems to have lost his head.

Sebum apparently also drives Savage Kitten out of the room.

Who knew?

Savage Kitten decided to sleep in her own bed last night. She didn't say why. Maybe it's because I twitch when I sleep, or something. Sometimes her actions are baffling.
She lit one of the truly strong sticks of incense - resinous and spicy, snow-pear and a touch of eagle wood from Indo-China.
I could smell the whisps drifting over from her room for several hours - a penetrating fragrance that keeps out evil.

=======================================

No innocent middle-school students were harmed in the making of this post.

Whether or not they are now psychologically scarred is a different matter.

=======================================

NOTE I: Skippy also responds enthusiastically to good pipe tobacco. Which too is strange.

NOTE II: From Wikipedia: "Another common and effective method of treatment involves placement of a heat-pad directly on the cyst for about fifteen minutes, twice daily, for about 10 days (depending on size and location of the cyst). "

That's good information to have, don't you agree?

=======================================
=======================================

STOMACH PROBLEMS

A few weeks ago I made mention of a five-way conversation in the kitchen in which I was rhetorically trounced, despite my being eighty percent of the speakers, because I am not a morning person, whereas Savage Kitten is just full of beans the moment she gets up.


The explanation is this: Savage Kitten voices for "other entities", in order to either snark me or for rhetorical effect. The other entities for whom she channels are usually the small furry critters - teddy bear, Steif raccoon (a very reactionary type, unfortunately), purple cat, sock sheep, cheerful black spider handpuppet, et autres - or, and this is a disturbing recent development, eccentric portions of my anatomy.

The discussion in the kitchen in which I got bested was between her, me, Fuzzbert, and the Harry twins. Fuzzbert is my stomach, and you really do not need to know who the Harry twins are. Suffice to say that I was the person grumbling monosyllabically (while preparing my first cup of coffee), whereas Savage Kitten had a lovely chat with Fuzzbert and the Harry twins (while making herself a giant plate of fried treif for breakfast). Yes, eighty percent of the "people" in the kitchen were me - but ninety percent of the voices were not. And they are all different and distinct personalities.
Unlike me, they are also all morning people.
They wiped the floor with me.
I am still traumatized.


For your reference, this post:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-stomach-speaks.html


Fuzzbert tends to disagree with everything I say, and he's a chatterbox.

Yesterday I was lying on the bed reading when I heard Fuzzbert's voice.
He was audibly distressed.

"Oh no, I have a nasty growth on my back that looks like a grumpy middle-aged white guy!"

I tried to ignore it. That merely encouraged him.

"Hi there, hot stuff, you got a boyfriend?"

This last was directed at Savage Kitten, who was sitting at the other end of the bed looking sweet and innocent.

"What's a fine filly like you doing in dump like this?"

Oh crap, now Fuzzbert is putting the moves on my girl!
Two things: numbah one, I've got to nip this in the bud, and numbah two, I ain't gonna get a chance to finish the chapter.

"Baby baby baby, oooh yeah! Yowza!"


I threatened to hit Fuzzbert with the book if he didn't shut up. He swore he would call the SPCA on me and have me hauled off in chains. I told him that the SPCA was not concerned with cruelty to hairy abdomens, and he then said he would have his friends the twins kick the crap out of me.
Enlisting the help of Savage Kitten at this point was less than useful - I think that she was rooting for Fuzzbert. She must secretly like him.

Her only contribution to the conversation was to opine that I was just being a big meanie.

Then she returned to her book, and Fuzzbert promptly said something particularly appalling.

Fuzzbert has a surprising talent for ribald gloating and vulgarity.

As was perhaps to be expected, I soon got the worst of the conversation.

I now have a serious rival for the love of Savage Kitten. One who has a nasty growth on his back that looks like a grumpy middle-aged white guy, but is nevertheless more suave and charming than I could possibly ever be.
I have no idea how this happened.

STRONG OPINION? GUEST-POST!

On one of the other blogs, someone suggested, by a sharp retort, that I was a rancid left-winger. At least, I think that is what they meant. And by their standards, I am. Out here on the West-Coast, some people know differently (hi Stephen!).


It isn't entirely a matter of perspective. Sure, if you really think that our invasion of Iraq was the greatest thing since Noah came down from mount Sinai with two loaves of wonderbread, you probably consider me a raving communist.......
And if you truly believe that George Bush was an honest and good man, you may have serious problems with your ability to interpret reality, AND you would likely think of me as a rabid and rancid lefty.



That's okay. I deal with loonies on a daily basis, so I know where your coming from. And I promise never to visit.



On the other hand, this being the San Francisco Bay Area, there are people here who consider most of my points of view to be reformulated National Socialism (hi Stephen!).
Or worse.

I care as little for that interpretation as for the first point of view. Both are too simplistic. If you are unable to see nuance and automatically reduce complicated matters to simple "truths", it doesn't matter what your perspective is, your perception is foggy.



You may disagree. If so, I am keen to hear about it. Heck, I'll even post you here as a guest-blogger if you want.
Just send your screed to: atthebackofthehill@yahoo.com


There are a few basic rules, though.
No obscenity, nor hatred towards any ethnic groups, religions, or sexualities. Hatred of Dutch politics, ideas, and food, however, is perfectly all right.
No advocating of illegal activities (sorry, all of you pot-smokers), nor advertisements for diet-pills or Viagra, but on the other hand, impassioned anti-smoking propaganda may be allowed, even though I disagree with every single thing you say, and am convinced that you are a health-nazi.
No real names and addresses. No uninteresting perversions. No disquisitions on gardening.
Opinions, even if I disagree with them, are welcome - I'll be prefacing guest-posts with an intro paragraph, and following them with my own addendum, so I can indicate disavowal if need be, though I probably won't - it will be quite evident that the piece is a guest-post.

Be eloquent - I want people to read my blog, and I'm using you as bait.

There will probably be more rules as I think of them, but please remember: everything that I do NOT wish you to do, I will nevertheless maintain as my own prerogative.
Just like in real life.

MENSA AND ... MADNESS

Yesterday's attack at the Holocaust Museum is disturbing. But not for the reasons that you might think.
It turns out that the killer, James W. Brunn, was a member of Mensa.

[Mensa is the association of geniuses. That is to say, it is an association of people who have passed the standardized intelligence quotient tests with flying colours. Leaving the limitations of the test itself aside, it can be perhaps be thought of as an organization of people with a genius for passing IQ tests.]


Normally I prefer to think of bigots and extremists as being less intelligent than myself. That is in any case what I assume. It is a very comforting thought.
But people like James W. Brunn and Theodore Kaczynski prove me wrong.


MENSA?

Balance, perspective, and common sense may go hand in hand with intelligence, but do not necessarily do so, and there is little evidence that more intelligent people are also saner. Some brainiacs, in fact, can be startlingly loopy.

When we moved to the Netherlands in 1962, my parents joined Mensa. It seemed like a good idea, as, they assumed at the time, it would make it easier to meet English-speakers with a certain level of education.

They were wrong.


MADNESS

Mensa made it easier to meet people who believed that Amelia Erhart had been kidnapped by space-aliens and was held captive in a giant green triangle flying around the sun. As well as individuals who had joined Scientology and were convinced, CONVINCED, that the solution to all of mankind's problems lay in worshipful obedience to Elron. Plus other beliefs even more absurd.

Many of these people were adept at twisting words, and experts at "finding" evidence that supported their views. The more able they were in this regard, the less open to reason or rational conversation they proved themselves. Having a super-brain set them aside from normal social interaction, and made them susceptible to creative re-interpretation of reality.

You cannot have a normal conversation with someone who is mad as a hatter.


POSTSCRIPT

My parents dropped out of Mensa within a few years. Dealing with brilliant nutballs was not nearly as stimulating as they had hoped.

[Personally, I doubt that it was stimulating at all - several of the staggeringly insane people whom I know due to living in San Francisco are of genius level. I do not find them stimulating, and I wish to have naught to do with their stimulation.]


Later on, one of my father's colleagues finally was allowed to join Mensa. And was extremely surprised to find a person in the list of members with the SAME NAME as my father. Was my father a relative of this man? Did he know him? Where they, perhaps, distant cousins? How interesting that someone had the same name! And had my father ever been accidentally mistaken for that man? Had he met him?

My father solemnly confessed that no, he had never been mistaken for that man, in fact had no idea that there was another person in the whole of the Netherlands with the same name, how remarkable that the names were identical!
If he ever met that man, he would be sure to express wonder at the fate that had given them the same handle.

It was very perspicacious of you to notice that the names were the same.
And congratulations on being a member of Mensa. We had NO idea that you were so smart.

COMMENT MODERATION

Due to the frequent comments of a gentleman in Berkeley, comment moderation has been enabled.

Don't worry, even opposing points of view will get approved.
It's just that I don't appreciate the anti-Semites playing dirty on my blog.
I have rather high standards in that regard. And counsel has advised me concerning posts and comments.

Oh, and that woman in the photo? Care to provide her name and address also, Stevie-pooh?

Don't even think of it, brudda.
Hows your viagra holding out?

MORE ABOUT GILAD ATZMON

For those people who do not wish to visit Gilad atzmon's own internet site or spend time reading his articles, here are some quotes that give as good a word-portrait of the man whom the BFUU hosted two days ago as any.



GILAD ATZMON'S ANTI-SEMITIC STATEMENTS:

"There is no such thing as anti-Semitism."

"Why is it that the Jews who repeatedly demand that the Christian world should apologize for its involvement in previous persecutions, have never thought that it is about time that they apologized for killing Jesus?"

"The Jews who had now managed to kill their God learned to believe in themselves."

"We need the voices of David Duke…and Pat Buchanan."

"Throughout the centuries, Jewish bankers bought for themselves some real reputations of backers and financers of wars and even one communist revolution."

"The only people who managed to maintain and sustain a racially orientated, expansionist and genocidal national identity that is not at all different from Nazi ethnic ideology are the Jews."

"American Jews do try to control the world, by proxy."

"How is that America let its foreign policy be shaped by ruthless Zionists?"



GILAD ATZMON REGARDING THE HOLOCAUST:

"Equating Gaza with Auschwitz is the right and only way forwards. Questioning the holocaust and its meaning is what liberation of humanity means today and in the near future. "

"If the Palestinians are indeed the last victims of Hitler, then the holocaust and its meaning do belong to them more than anyone else."



GILAD ATZMON RATIONALIZING ARSON:

"I’m not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act."



BFUU, WOMEN IN BLACK, ISM

The sentiments above are what was endorsed by sponsoring Gilad Atzmon.
The man who wrote these things performed at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU) on Monday June 8, 2009, in a charitable event on behalf of Bay Area Women in Black and the ISM.
The BFUU, through their Social Justice Committee, seem to be establishing a track record.


Fyi, two "interesting gentlemen", accompanied by a Hamas flag and a Sheikh Nasrallah t-shirt, showed up to protest on behalf of the BFUU and Gilad Atzmon. It was very Berkeley of them to do so.
Having those two outside the building waving a Hamas flag really says "peace movement".


There was also an abusive Colombian woman who believed that being part or mostly native American and from Centro-America gave her license to be as anti-Semitic and racist as she wanted to be. Also present were a number of chicken Jew-haters from the BFUU congregation, and assorted peace-fakers and groupies.
The Unitarians know how to attract some real prizes.

STEPHEN PEARCY AND JOSEPH ANDERSON AT THE BFUU

Rabbosai, a number of comments under a recent post are so interesting that I really must bring them to your attention. The post was an action alert forwarded from San Francisco Voice for Israel / Stand With Us, for a protest yesterday evening at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU).
The reason for the protest was BFUU hosting the controversial self-hating anti-Semite, apologist for terror, and Israel-hater Gilad Atzmon in a charity performance organized by Bay Area Women in Black on behalf of the friends of Hamas and Hezbollah (the ISM).

[This post:http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/06/anti-semitism-in-berkeley-bfuu-and.html ]



SELECTED COMMENTS


At 9:54 AM, Anonymous said…
Great protest at the BFUU- great energy ! And more people on the street than in the concert!
Nice grass roots effort to eliminate hate in Berkeley.
And I completely agree with one of the spokespeople- there should be ZERO tolerance for hate speech in the Progressive community.
Does anyone know the story of that loser with the HAMAS flag and Nasrallah t-shirt? Just wondering
---

At 10:06 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
Does anyone know the story of that loser with the HAMAS flag and Nasrallah t-shirt? Just wondering
That was, if I recall correctly, Stephen Pearcy - looking amazingly buff now that he's in the market again (I don't believe for a moment that he and Virginia are back together - after over a dozen years of living with her abuser, she's finally realized that even if she LIKES being taken, she can do better). Also please note that he's had his teeth whitened and his hair colour 'corrected', which rather suggests that age is creeping up on him. Given his target "audience, that cannot be a good thing.
He's working out, too. I should find out which fitness center.

Stephen Pearcy, as you may recall, is the yutz who hanged a soldier in effigy - the gruesome puppet was roped to the eave of his Sacramento house in "protest" at something, with a changing roster of offense statements. He also participated in several flag-burnings and "radical direct actions". He's a classic ultra-left Nazi. With a superhumongous ego, and no actual achievements - other than courting Virginia when she was still a minor. Not quite sure of the age differential between them, he's eighteen or nineteen years older than her (they married four years after she moved into his house, when she finally turned eighteen).
---

At 10:07 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
Quote: "In August 2005, Pearcy made national news once again when he exhibited a painting at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento showing a star-spangled map of the United States being flushed down a toilet. The painting included the words, "T'anks to Mr. Bush!" The art exhibit was controversial ... "

No shit!
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At 10:10 AM, Dancing Hamster said…
And this, quoted on diggers realm:
"She met Steven Pearcy when she was in 8th grade [13 years old]—he was her 31 year old math tutor, going to [University of CA at] Davis and working as a lab tech. She then moved in with Pearcy. "They had their own rooms, and didn’t get romantically involved until after she left UC Davis, they said. " When Virginia turned 18, they ’suddenly‘ realized they were in luuurve and married. That same day, I believe. Steven was 36. "

[SOURCE: http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000808.html ]
---

At 12:35 PM, Strunk said…
Poncy red dye job. Looked like he had robbed a Pakistani mullah of his hennaed beard and glued it on. And the female-pattern baldness angry black man could've done with a bath. Nasty git.
---

At 1:46 PM, Anonymous said…"angry black man"
Oh! that would be Joseph Anderson. He usually uses spray on hair- perhaps he ran out.
see:
http://02d2262.netsolhost.com/anderson.html

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Source: this comment string:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=17704096&postID=7907231199647926437&isPopup=true

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JOSEPH ANDERSON

The link provided by Anonymous at 1:46 PM goes to an article wherein this quote:
"Personally, I *EXULT* everytime I see an Israeli Jew bit the dust. And the same goes for their American cousins! EVERY SINGLE JEW EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD is a just and appropriate target for anti-colonialist liberation! We need to start targeting *EVERY* synagogue, *EVERY* Jew community center, school and everywhere else that you racist devils preach and propogate your agenda."

It's an interesting article, and I recommend you read it. It admirably captures the essence of the man.


As does this quote:
"Lovelle Mixon’s name will be legendary in the Bay Area—long after people forget the names of the four cops he killed in one afternoon. "[SOURCE: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/04/05/18586189.php and ultimately: http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2009-04-02/article/32613?headline=The-Karmic-Justice-of-Lovelle-Mixon-s-Act]

Joseph Anderson, political activist, reporter manqué, and typical Berkeleyite, is a frequent contributor to the Berkeley Daily Planet, which has pretensions of being a real newspaper.


NOTE: Joseph Anderson and fellow-traveler Stephen Pearcy were outside the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists on Cedar Street yesterday evening, passionately defending free speech for Gilad Atzmon and his sponsors. This necessitated the waving of a large Hamas flag and loud vocalizing.
Berkeley is all about free speech, and the Berkeley Unitarians are keen to let one side of the issue be heard.

UNITARIANS, GILAD ATZMON, HAMAS FLAG? BERKELEY!

Last night the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists hosted Gilad Atzmon, a stridently prolix anti-Semitic enemy of Israel and Jew-hater.
Yes, Gilad Atzmon used to be Jewish and Israeli, and now passionately hates both Jews and Israelis. Perhaps he has issues. That isn't really germane.

[BFUU: Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar Street, Berkeley, CA 94709.]



CONTROVERSIAL? TRY REPREHENSIBLE'!

After the Berkeley Unitarians had been made aware of the "controversial" nature of Gilad Atzmon's writings, they decided to go ahead with the planned event, claiming they had merely "contracted to rent the BFUU hall" for a "group the BFUU-SJC had supported before", namely the ISM (International Solidarity Movement). They also assert that they were unaware "at the time" of mr. Atzmon's reputation.

[BFUU-SJC = Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists - Social Justice Committee.]


Both of those are very interesting claims. Absurd and entirely unbelievable, but interesting.


The internet is a potent source of information.


A search using the name 'Gilad Atzmon' pulls up scads of stuff, the majority of which is mister Atzmon's own torrid rhetoric, most of which is hatefilled faux-intellectual garbage. And please note that while his supposed claim to fame is as a saxophonist, his poison penmanship is what stands out - so much so that one might overlook his music.
He certainly makes no effort to hide his rabid hatred of Israel, or Jews, or even the US. His published articles and his own internet site prove him to be a racist and bigot.
Yes, Gilad Atzmon used to be Jewish and Israeli, and now loathes both Jews and Israelis. Probably he has issues, but that isn't really germane.



PROTEST

At six thirty in the evening, about twenty of us gathered outside the BFUU hall (located at 1924 Cedar Street in Berkeley, one block up from the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Cedar), to protest Gilad Atzmon's scheduled performance, the BFUU for hosting it (and, as they admit, initially cosponsoring - though they are fudging their role in their latest handout), Bay Area Women in Black for organizing the event, and the ISM for being dangerous radicals involved in a number of pro-Hamas events. Flags, signs, and a clear message calling the BFUU to task for promoting and enabling anti-Semitism.

This did not please the BFUU. Some of their members stood outside the building looking farklempt. One of their members is a racist Jew who screamed at us. Another one is a Columbian woman who may have had a few cocktails before she tried to snatch a sign. Most of them were far too sour and sullen to scream or snatch.
Solidly bourgeois Berkeleyites just don't do such things.

But the BFUU did have the able assistance of Stephen Pearcy and his friend Joseph Anderson, vocalizing on their behalf.



STEPHEN PEARCY & JOSEPH ANDERSON

Stephen Pearcy, a Berkeley resident known for his flip utterances in support of violent action, an effigy of an American soldier strung up with a noose hanging from the eaves of his house in Sacramento, and praise of selective murder, came armed with a Hamas flag. It was on a very long pole - he may be compensating for something.

[He was not accompanied by his wife Virginia Pearcy (affectionately called "Little Pooh Blossom" by those of us who know of her support for extremist causes). A very great pity, as I would've loved to have seen what she looks like now that she is an adult.]


Joseph Anderson merely brought his own self. Joseph Anderson's claim to fame is his stated conviction that all Jews are legitimate targets, coupled with the paranoid belief that Noam Chomsky is a closeted Zionist apologist (*), along with almost every other left-wing Jew.
He is also in favour of cop killing, according to his own writings.

[Joseph Anderson: 'Karmic Justice': http://www.sfbayview.com/2009/karmic-justice/
'Why We Hate Cops': http://www.prisoners.com/hatecops.html
Article in which the closeted Zionist apologist accusation appears: http://dissidentvoice.org/June06/Anderson08.htm and also http://peaceandjustice.org/article.php/20060612173054885]



STALWART PARTISANS OF THE BFUU

Both of these gentlemen (Stephen Pearcy and Joseph Anderson) are perfect representatives of Berkeley peace activists, and of the BFUU. There can be no better illustration of everything that the Social Justice Committee of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists stands for, than a virulent Hamas supporter and a violent bigot who applauds the murder of cops.

Seeing Stephen Pearcy and his friend Joseph Anderson with a Hamas flag outside the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists was perfect.
Just perfect.


Hearing them was even better.

It doesn't get more Berkeley than that.

RICHARD BECKER EMASCULATED ON SATURDAY

International ANSWER's big anti-Israel hate-fest at UN Plaza in San Francisco on Saturday June 8 fizzled monumentally. All their planning yielded no more than 125 or so die-hard haters. And their rally was over by two-thirty, though they wanted to be there till tea-time.
They were going to bus in anti-Semites from the South-Bay, the Sacramento area, Marin and Sonoma counties. They had several organizations on board, all of whom were going to bring in their people to scream and shout against Israel. Richard Becker, west coast chief wombat of International ANSWER, would address the masses.

[Participating organizations: Al-Awda Palestine Right of Return Coalition, Free Palestine Alliance, American Indian Movement, Middle East Children’s Alliance, FMLN of Northern California, Barrio Unido for Total and Unconditional Amnesty, West County Toxics Coalition, National Committee to Free the Cuban 5, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Industrial Workers of the World-SF Bay Area, Code Pink, Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in Philippines, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, World Can’t Wait, AND the fabulous Anarchists.]



ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE?


That's ALL you could manage, Richard?


Epic fail!


Half of those people were your own event-staff and your pet speakers. You must feel very small right now. All shriveled, huh?
It probably didn't help that the eighty or ninety pro-Israel activists who showed up to counter-demonstrate decided that it wasn't worth their while to stay, and instead happily marched down Market Street after Gloria La Riva had her fit of Jew-baiting hystrionics on the farm truck y'all were using as a podium.


The SFPD probably also thought it was a paltry performance - they nearly outnumbered your side.



ONLY ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE PEOPLE?

You poor man! All that pre-event hoopla, and there was nearly nobody there to appreciate your fine speechy-weechy.
What did you end up saying? Was it the usual stuff about how defeating the racist-Jew nazi-zionists would lead to a workers' paradise where the Jewish and Muslim working classes would rebuild Gaza into a flower garden? Was it that stuff about how pro-Israel activists ONLY exist to excoriate you and prevent your wisdom from circulating? How about that wonderful theory that North Korea, Iran, and Gaza are all true examples of socialism in action? The US is the root of all evil in the world? Hugo Chavez speaks truth to power? Fidel Castro is a righteous leader (even though perhaps not quite Maoist enough)?


Did anybody listen?


Yes, the anti-Zionist Jews did show up to support you, Richard - all four of them!
They were too busy feeling pleased with themselves to pay attention to anything.

The World Can't Wait also endorsed your rally - this is what they wrote to their acolytes last week:

World Can't Wait (SF Bay Area) has endorsed and supports this June 6th rally in San Francisco, demanding: "End the Siege of Gaza!"

We invite you to join the World Can't Wait contingent (look for the orange super-picket signs and the 9-foot rolling "Obama-nator" puppet).


June 6th,this Saturday, is the 42nd anniversary of the seizure of Gaza by Israel.
[cut]
World Can't Wait steadfastly opposes and works to raise resistance in this country against all moves by the U.S. government to exert domination, unjust wars and occupation, and illegal aggression.
[cut]
To anyone who had hoped that a post-Bush/Cheney administration under Obama would deliver true change in U.S. policy and role toward the Middle East -- listen to Barack Obama's speech in Cairo on Thursday. Hear Obama himself tell you how U.S. policy is not, on his watch, going to significantly break with the dangerous trajectory of the Bush years. Please join us in the streets of San Francisco this Saturday!

EVENT: Solidarity Day on the 42nd Anniversary of Israel's Seizure of Gaza
TIME: Saturday, June 6, 12 noon
PLACE: UN Plaza (7th St. & Market St.), San Francisco

- - - - - -


NO WAITING

Apparently, The World Can't Wait can't be bothered to actually show up. Same goes for The South Bay Mobilization.
Unless those ten or so middle aged middle class people were them.

In short, Richard Becker, we had more sincerely pro-Israel people from just the local community than all the opportunistic bigots you could pull in from the entire Bay Area. Perhaps your strident anti-Jew spew is not as appealling as you heretofore thought, and your harem of radical hate-speakers may have ruined your reputation by their rhetoric.
In fact, I'm convinced of it - a failure of this magnitude is not due to your loathesomeness alone, you had help.


TEETH

And I note, by the way, that the news clip did not flatter you. Horrid video!
Normally I would recommend a good dentist (one I go to myself - he's REALLY good!), but I would not wish his bills to go unpaid, and I fear that your health-care coverage as chief office worker of International ANSWER (or whatever it is that you do for a living - you ARE employed, aren't you?) would not cover the work that needs to be done.
Those teeth look like they need serious attention.
But that may have just been the natural lighting.


=====================================


IN OTHER NEWS:


Apparently a bunch of stalwart revolutionaries were arrested very early Sunday morning trying to commit vandalism at the location of Israel In The Gardens.


Additionally, a rowdy protest against everything Jewish, scheduled for Sunday at noon in front of Israel In The Gardens was much of a non-event - The anti-Israel activists intended to have a few hundred protestors in front of the fair, but they got about thirty.
Ron (Ralph?) Berg, who had been at Saturday's non-event was there also with his pro-Palestinian signs.
I mention Ralph (Ron?) Berg, because I remember his response when asked how he could possibly justify standing alongside anti-Semites yelling "the Jews are our dogs" in front of the consulate a few years back - he demanded to know what the context was in which they yelled that slogan.

[Falastin balad'na wa'l Yahud qalab'na - 'Palestine is OUR land and the Jews are our dogs']


It looks like Ron (Ralph?) Berg is now formally a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. So that means that there are actually five of them, not four.
Unless Lily of Arab Resource is ALSO a member - she's VERY multifacetted.


Friday evening: Women in Black are a no-show for their monthly vigil in downtown SF.
The three of us called victory after waiting for them for twenty minutes.
Maybe they're sick. In which case, refuah sheleima!
And see you next month, ladies. We'll be waiting for you.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN BERKELEY - THE BFUU AND GILAD ATZMON

The following is an action alert from SF Voice for Israel / Stand With US SF.


ACTION ALERT


Vigil against Anti-Semitism in Berkeley
Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar Street at Bonita, Berkeley
Monday June 8, 6:30-7:30 PM

On Monday night, the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists is hosting a concert by a musician named Gilad Atzmon. Atzmon is an ex-Israeli who now resides in the UK; he has renounced not only being Israeli, but his membership in the Jewish people and now writes and promotes classically anti-Semitic remarks.

It sounds too bizarre to be true, but he has left a well documented trail of anti-Semitic remarks such as:

"Throughout the centuries, Jewish bankers bought for themselves some real reputations of backers and financers of wars, and even one communist revolution. Though rich Jews had been happily financing wars using their assets, Alan Greenspan, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States, found a far more sophisticated way to finance the wars perpetrated by his ideological brothers Libby and Wolfowitz."

"The 'Elders of Zion' syndrome: Zionists complain that Jews continue to be associated with a conspiracy to rule the world via political lobbies, media and money. Is the suggestion of conspiracy really an empty accusation?
The following list is presented with pride on several Jewish American websites.
Jews in Bush's Administration (a list of some 30 names follows…)
Let me assure you, in Clinton's administration the situation was even worse. Even though the Jews only make up 1.9 per cent of the country's population, an astounding 56 per cent of Clinton's appointees were Jews. A coincidence? I don't think so."

"I would suggest that perhaps we should face it once and for all: the Jews were responsible for the killing of Jesus who, by the way, was himself a Palestinian Jew. …..Why is it that the Jews who repeatedly demand that the Christian world should apologise for its involvement in previous persecutions, have never thought that it is about time that they apologised for killing Jesus?"


"I'm not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue, I can see that it is a rational act."


As if that's not enough, Atzmon also boasts on his website of circulating an article denying the Holocaust written by an extremist in the UK named Paul Eisen, and supports the Swedish anti-Semitic fascist who writes under the pen name "Israel Shamir". Shamir has claimed that Jews have indeed slaughtered Christian children for their blood (the infamous "blood libel" now being vigorously promoted in some Arab countries), and claimed that "Auschwitz was an internment facility, attended by the Red Cross". Atzmon calls Shamir "a unique and advanced thinker".

The concert is co-sponsored by the church's Social Justice Committee and two anti-Israel groups: Bay Area Women in Black and International Solidarity Movement. The BFUU may not have been aware of Atzmon's promotion of hate speech when they agreed to host the event, but they were made aware of it last week and they have refused to cancel it.

San Francisco Voice for Israel will hold a vigil outside the church from 6:30-7:30. This is about more than their hosting an anti-Israel event; it's about their choice to proceed with this event despite knowing the hate speech that Atzmon both creates and promotes. So, for a change, we don't need Israeli flags or pro-Israel signs. If you want to create your own signs for this event, please do not refer to the BFUU members as anti-Semites, but feel free to criticize their decision to allow a genuine anti-Semite to appear in their church!


Suggested signs:

"Hate speech: not welcome here"
"Hate speech is unjust"
"Why does BFUU tolerate hate speech?"

Please invite your non-Jewish friends to this event. This is about hate speech in the Bay Area, and decent people of all religions and (almost) all political orientations should be justifiably concerned about this type of extremism being welcomed into our community.

StandWithUs/San Francisco Voice for Israel
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs. com


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AFTERWORD

Please note - the Berkeley environment is famously liberal. Apparently that liberalness now extends to coddling bigots and haters. The BFUU are of a type that gives even liberals such as this blogger the heebie-jeebies. But they are VERY much in the Berkeley pattern.
Having a famous university attracts mediocre minds, intellectual pretenders, and faux-revolutionaries. Rather like cowpie attracts flies.

BAD HOSPITAL INDONESIA

Omni International Hospital in Indonesia believes that patients have NO right to complain about whatever the hospital decides to do. Or decides NOT to do.

Former patient Prita Mulyasari complained about her treatment in an email to friends.
The e-mail was forwarded... and forwarded..... and forwarded..........

Which outraged the hospital. So they took Prita Mulyasari to court. She had already been found guilty and fined in a civil case, she now faces six years in jail and a hefty fine if convicted on criminal charges.
The mother of two was arrested and held at the Tangerang women's' jail for three weeks after the hospital filed its complaint.



JAKARTA POST ARTICLE:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/05/highprofile-trial-libel-against-omni-international-hospital-begins.html

Quote:
The prosecutors said the incident in question began when the defendant went to Omni hospital seeking treatment for a headache and fever on Aug. 7.

"After she was examined by Dr Indah, it is known the defendant's thrombocyte dropped to 27,000, so she had to be treated by a specialist doctor at the hospital. Dr Indah recommended Dr Hengki Gosal treat her," Rahmawati told the hearing.

Hengki then examined the defendant's condition, which had weakened after suffering from a high fever for three days, as well as a serious headache, nausea and general pains in her body.

"Based on observation results, the doctor declared Prita a dengue fever suspect and diagnosed a viral and secondary infection, which she was treated for with an intravenous injection," the prosecutors said.

The following morning Hengki informed Prita there had been a revision of her blood count from 27,000 to 181,000. As the defendant's left hand had begun to swell, she asked the doctor to stop the intravenous injection.

The prosecutors said, according to the defendant, her condition worsened. She left the hospital on Aug. 12 with a final diagnosis result showing that she had suffered from parotitis or mumps.

Prita, who had delivered written complaints to the management of the hospital's customer service center, relocated to Bintaro International Hospital for medical treatment until Aug. 15.

"The subject of her complaint included the condition of her health from the time she entered the hospital's emergency ward until she left the hospital, laboratory results, poor service and information and the response of *Omni customer service manager* Dr Grace - accused of unprofessional practice - led the defendant to write and send an email to her friends titled *Omni International Hospital, Alam Sutera, Tangerang, fraud," the prosecutor said.

[end cite]



THE HOSPITAL'S COMPLAINT

There appears to be no evidence that anything Prita Mulyasari wrote was untrue. Nor is the substance of her beef against the hospital up for dispute.

The hospital asserts that the e-mail written by Prita Mulyasari, by having been so widely circulated on the internet, affected their business and their name. They strive to maintain a reputation as an efficient modern hospital, up to international standards; pesky complaints by the little people hinder them in that regard.
[Reality has NO business interfering with business. ]

The law that came into play was the Undang-Undang tentang Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik (UU - ITE; the regulations regarding electronic information and transactions), wich can be read in its 31-page bafflegab entirety here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2362550/UU-ITE
The relevant section basically states that whatever the little people say about the big guys can be held against them, at the discretion of the big guys - that being the government and the corporate world.

I should point out, at this juncture, that in Indonesia there is little or no separation of big business and state. Or, in fact, of big business and elements of the military.
[Except if the business is owned by Chinese-Indonesians. Then the gulf is vast.]



LETTERS

Here's a polite and well-written letter that you can send to the hospital:

to: info@omnihealthcare.co.id, info@omni-hospitals.com
cc: rhnp@cbn.net.id

Yth.
Management RS OMNI International dan Pengacaranya
Tanggerang

Dengan hormat,

Berkenaan dengan kasus hukum Prita Mulyasari salah satu mantan pasien RS OMNI International tangerang dan pemberitaan yang kami baca melalui Internet dan media massa maka kami berpendapat bahwa tindakan dari Management RS OMNI International sangatlah BERLEBIHAN dan TIDAK PERLU.

Surat Pembaca dan Email Pribadi Prita Mulyasari yang dia tulis adalah ungkapan kekecewaan terhadap pelayanan yang RS OMNI International tangerang berikan.

Bukannya menanggapi keluhan pelanggan tersebut dengan baik dan menyelesaikan masalahnya, RS OMNI International tangerang malah melakukan tuntutan hukum PERDATA dan PIDANA dan dalam proses melakukan KRIMINALISASI pada pasien Anda sendiri.

Keluhan pelanggan/pasien yang mana hak-nya dijamin oleh UU No 8 Tahun 1999 tentang Perlindungan Konsumen.

Karena sebab diatas maka kami menuntut agar RS OMNI International tangerang agar:

- Menghentikan segera semua upaya tuntutan hukum Perdata maupun Pidana pada Prita Mulyasari

- Dalam kasus Perdata, karena terlanjur diputuskan: tidak melakukan banding dan tidak melakukan eksekusi hukumnan

- Dalam kasus Pidana, karena sudah terlanjur masuk persidangan, memberikan support pada Prita Mulyasari dan memberikan kesaksian yang meringankan

- Memberikan layanan yang terbaik, sesuai hukum dan kode etik pelayanan kesehatan bagi para pasiennya

- Tidak lagi mengkriminalisasi pasien-pasien dan pelanggan RS Omni International tangerang

Ini adalah suara publik dan pelanggan yang kami yakin akan Anda dengarkan dan pertimbangkan dengan serius dan masak-masak.

Mohon agar kasus ini dapat diselesaikan dengan segera dan tidak berlarut-larut.

Hormat saya,


[Your name]
[Address/Location]
[Date]


SOURCE: Enda Nasution, cited on the Unspun Blog, in this post: http://theunspunblog.com/2009/06/03/free-prita-now-join-the-email-campaign/


You can also snailmail letters to:

Rumah Sakit Omni International
Jalan Alam Sutera Boulevard Kav. 25
15325 Kab. Tangerang
Indonesia
Director: Bina Ratna Kusuma Putri
Attorney: Risma Situmorang



BAD HOSPITAL INDONESIA

Please note: I got the title of this post from an entry on Rivandra Royono's blog, guest-written by Sherria Ayuandini.

http://rivanroyono.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/omni-tangerang-hospital-a-story-of-public-relations-suicide/

Terimakasih banyak to both of them for (unwittingly) suggesting a killer title! The subject-line "Penipuan Omni International Hospital Alam Sutera Tangerang", which was what I was thinking of naming this post, probably doesn't do much for most of my readers.