THE POSSIBILITY OF WAR WITH SYRIA AT THIS TIME

The essay below has been cross-posted on Jameel's blog.

[Jameel at the Muqata: http://muqata.blogspot.com/ Post in question: http://muqata.blogspot.com/2007/09/possibility-of-war-with-syria-at-this.html ]

I apologize taking up so much of Jameel's space and his readers' time with this post, and I extend my thanks to him for allowing me posting privileges on his blog in the first place.

[Also, it's ten o'clock at night in San Francisco, I'm full of caffeine, and probably no longer thinking straight. I would really love it if the readers rip this posting to pieces point by point.]


In postings both on Jameel's blog
(here: http://muqata.blogspot.com/2007/09/elephant-in-room.html)
and at Joe Settler
(here: http://joesettler.blogspot.com/2007/09/taking-bets-upcoming-war-with-syria.html)
the chance that Israel will soon be at war with Syria is mentioned.


Is war with Syria this year likely? I believe it is.
Is war with Syria this year inevitable? Not necessarily.
Is it desirable? No.


If war breaks out with Syria in the Summer or Autumn of 2007, there will be involvement, in varying degrees, of several enemy entities: Syrian military and Syrian irregulars, Iran , Hezbollah, plus Hamas and other Palestinian elements (partly coordinated from Damascus).



SOME BACKGROUND

Syria’s rulers have drawn closer to and gained support from Iran in recent years, to the point where they can now reject pressure towards democratic and economic reform from the West, and have further strengthened their grip on all levels of Syrian society. To a lesser extent, this also applies to Lebanon, despite developments there since the assassination of Rafik Hariri.

In this they have been aided by events in Iraq, which have served as an object lesson - the prospect of 'democracy' has been tarnished by events in Baghdad and the idea itself has shown its dangerous side to a profoundly conservative population. United States success in Iraq (not likely) would present both Iran and Syria with a problem and a threat, whereas a US failure, while presenting risks, would allow both Iran and Syria to continue building their co-operation, advancing their own agendas, and expanding their influence in the region.
In relation thereto, Syria does not want the Sunni majority minority in Iraq to gain power at the expense of the Shiites, as this could encourage and enable Sunni elements in Syria. And in that regard, any diminishing of US forces in western Iraq should be seen as providing opportunities in that area, whereas an increase would be a further drain on the US war effort, simultaneously strengthening the position of Shiite forces in Baghdad and the east. Plainly put, Syria can benefit from several different eventualities provided it remains in control of events.

A profound change in the Middle-Eastern realities will possibly benefit both Syria and Iran more than maintaining the current status quo.



THE POSITION OF SYRIA

Syria considers itself as the nation most entitled to present the Arab and Palestinian cause, and does not trust that the negotiations scheduled for this November will yield results satisfactory to Syria.
Specifically, Syria can and will not permit a comprehensive peace treaty with the Arab world unless the Golan Heights are returned.

In recent months Syria increased weapons production and significantly improved its arsenal, and has moved both forces and materiel to the border, where their intelligence activities have increased and fortifications have been strengthened. Training of forces (both regular and irregular) has intensified, and there is a likelihood of activity by guerillas leading to an all-out confrontation.

A Syrian war against Israel would mean conflict on several fronts, including the Lebanese border, Gaza, and the West Bank.

Scuds and Katyushas from both the Lebanese area and Syria proper would cause significant damage and disruption. Given recent Syrian tests coordinated with the Iranians, rocket range is probably 200 miles plus. Syria has warned that in the event of war with Israel, hundreds of missiles would hit Tel Aviv.

Further adding to Syria’s arsenal, Russia boosted Syria’s capabilities with an advanced anti-aircraft missile network (the Russian SA-18 anti-aircraft system), providing more anti-Aircraft coverage than any Arab state has ever enjoyed.

If Syria were to invade the Golan, a massive ground force supported by their advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons could seize and hold the area until a cease fire.
Which means that Israel would lose the Golan.
This would be a strategic and political disaster, and would prove damaging to Israel's position, on many levels, and internationally.


THE POSITION OF IRAN

Iran needs a major shift in Middle-eastern reality. Time and Ahmedinejad's term of office are both limited; for Ahmedinejad, events in the Middle-East must come to a head soon in order to scuttle international efforts against Iran's strategic initiatives (i.e. nuclear 'power' and regional influence). A limited Syrian war with Israel, with Iranian involvement, would boost Ahmedinejad politically, disrupt current anti-Iranian efforts, and probably prevent moderates from gaining power in Iran for the foreseeable future.

Iranian involvement would include but not necessarily be limited to Chinese-made C-802 missiles (which were supplied to Syria in the Spring of 2007), technical assistance, and seconded personnel as advisors (*).

* It should particularly be noted that since the American invasion, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and other branches have gained much practical experience in Iraq that can be applied elsewhere - this was already evident in Lebanon in 2006.


THE POSITION OF HEZBOLLAH

Syria has re-armed Hezbollah to such an extent that their capabilities are greater than before the 2006 war in Lebanon. Rockets, in particular, have been provided in significant quantity - including materiel from Iran. This indicates a preparedness to strike deep inside Israel.

The 2006 war showed that Israel is not prepared for the military action needed to eradicate Hezbollah, nor willing to recapture and hold territory in Lebanon.

Sheikh Nasrallah is committed to action in any case should hostilities break out.


THE POSTION OF HAMAS ET AL

First of all, it is well to remember what seems to be the golden rule of Palestinian politics: when events spiral out of control, denials increase.

FATAH: While Fatah offically is quiescent towards the Israelis, unofficially there are still the alliances of convenience and opportunistic co-operative ventures with violent elements. Fatah itself is an unreliable and ineffective partner; many of Fatah's members have a commonality of purposes with Syria and Hamas, or are influenced by foreign elements, and can easily be prompted into action. If there is war with Syria, there will be violence in the territories.

HAMAS: While there is no serious threat to Hamas' position in Gaza, they have reached their limits there unless the blockade is broken and the realities change. But they are still active in the territories, along with Islamic Jihad and several other groups, and there too Syria has influence. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad have offices in Damascus, along with most other branches of the Palestinian enterprise.

Hamas, like Hezbollah, has more guns and ammo than they've ever had before, and their position and credibility are based upon being an effective force.
It is only because of their actions that they have received funding and assistance from outside, particularly from Iran and Syria. It is therefore a certainty that if war breaks out between Syria and Israel, both Hamas and Islamic Jihad will go into overdrive.
And they may even engineer the precipitating event of such a war.


THE POSITION OF THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Bluntly put: forget it.

Europe will not act on Israel's behalf without Israel making such concessions to both Fatah and Hamas as would amount to suicide, and in any case European public opinion can be counted on to be firmly opposed to Israel. Military involvement is entirely out of the question.

The United States has got its hands full in Iraq, and the president is in no position to forcefully commit the United States to Israel's defense at present. The political price of such an act at this time would cripple the current government and the Republican Party, and the United States would be faced with increased international isolation.

Turkey, Jordan, and Egypt would at best stay neutral, at worst would actively work against Israel. There are substantial political factions in all three of these countries who would welcome any war between Syria and Israel, and the position of all three countries would greatly improve in relation to the rest of the Islamic world if they abstained from any actions advantageous to Israel.

The United Nations can be safely relied upon to do absolutely nothing, achieve absolutely nothing, and mean absolutely nothing.



CONCLUSION

Many experts have already concluded that war is likely.

Syria has no reason to wait - it is clear that there is no discussion possible about the Golan, and they may well consider that successful negotiations require a change in the realities on the ground beforehand.

Iran has no reason to wait - international pressure on them (see above) will only increase.

Hezbollah has no reason to wait - they held their own against Israel in 2006, and they have been ascendant since then.

Hamas has no reason to wait - Gaza will only get worse, and opposition to their authority will increase.

All parties are at a state of readiness which is unprecedented, and there is little that will decrease the tension.

There is no better time for war than now.


-----B.O.T.H.


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I posted previously about this material here: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/06/four-fronts-gaza-west-bank-southern.html


Visit Jameel here: http://muqata.blogspot.com/
And visit Joe Settler here: http://www.joesettler.com/

And feel free to gloat if I am proven wrong.

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Addendum, Friday September 7th. 2007

According to an anonymous commenter over at Jameel's, I may be a weird conspiracy theorist. Of course I don't think I am, but I am not really in a position to judge. In the same way that people who hear voices have no reason to believe that they are insane, conspiracy theorist have no reason to doubt their own take on reality. I shan't stay awake at nights worrying about it, though.

THE BLENDER

Shnoo' and I were having a conversation in the kitchen, and out of the corner of our eyes following the actions of one of our co-workers. With some wonderment and worry.

And this, by the way, will show why you should never borrow a blender. You don't know what has been in it. It just ain't a kosher vessel.


Yellow vanilla flavoured soy milk. A very large banana. Two pills that could not be identified. A large scoop of something that looked like wood shavings. A smaller scoop of something that may have been kosher-le-peysach potato starch. Gravel of vegetable origin (we think). Some dark green liquid from a bottle. Water.

The whole at high-speed till frothy. Resulting in enough for two or three generous servings of...... whatever that stuff was. Paperhanger's paste. Spirulina soup. Foamy ditch-skimmings. Glob-drippy grey-green muck-sludge.

This is lunch?

Urrk.


But on the other hand, who am I to judge? I myself have blessed a blender.
Five years ago I had three rotten molars janked, and had to stay off solids for a week while my jaws healed. Liquids only. Not too difficult, right?

First day: Beaten yoghurt. More yoghurt. And some yoghurt after that.
[Plus some whiskey later in the evening.]

Second day: Beaten yoghurt. Fruity yoghurt. More fruity yoghurt.
[Plus some whiskey later in the evening.]

Third day: Beaten fruity yoghurt. And some plain yoghurt.
[Plus some whiskey later in the evening.]

Fourth day: I'm sick and tired of yoghurt, I've got dairy sludge coming out of my ears, this crap is BORING, and kinda disgusting to boot. What buncha degenerates invented this?!?!?!!!! Sweet cheeses I'm tired of this bloody buggery ghastly slimy white goo!!
I... NEED... GRUB!


Right at that point, I may have lost it.
Savage Kitten says she looked on as I put a can of chicken broth, teaspoon Thai red curry paste, teaspoon sugar, half an avocado, two tablespoons of peanut butter (crunchy), two whole jalapeños, and several strips of crispy fried bacon and some of the hot grease from the fry-pan into the blender. With a half a bottle of hot-sauce.
Vrrroooommm.
I was hysterically weeping as I drank it down.
Best darn smoothie ever.
Oh man.


[Plus some whiskey later in the evening.]


So, I really should not look askance at my coworker having a banana for lunch.
That's probably normal where he comes from.

SPEAKING WELL, SPEAKING ILL

It has been a while since I wrote about Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Attentive readers may remember that Ms. Ali resigned her parliamentary seat and left the Netherlands after the Dutch liberal party (VVD) showed their most quisling behaviour in years - not that one should have expected much better since they bailed on Hans Wiegel nearly two decades ago.

[Wikipedia article on the VVD:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Party_for_Freedom_and_Democracy
Bio-data on Hans Wiegel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Wiegel
Note especially this sentence: "He has 'threatened' to return to national politics a number of times, usually resulting in the VVD going up in the polls".]

That does not mean that Ayaan Hirsi Ali has disappeared. Her book 'INFIDEL' has gotten good reviews (and, as a worthwhile backgrounder, you might want to read Ian Buruma's 'A MURDER IN AMSTERDAM' at the same time.
[I encourage you to buy both books]

Expect more from her over the next several years - this is not a woman who is easily silenced.



Here's an interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali (in English) in Der Spiegel:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,399263,00.html

It's well worth a read, especially as it would never be published in the Netherlands - too divisive.

Quotes:

"---The cartoons should be displayed everywhere. After all, the Arabs can't boycott goods from every country. They're far too dependent on imports. And Scandinavian companies should be compensated for their losses. Freedom of speech should at least be worth that much to us."

"---Not a day passes, in Europe and elsewhere, when radical imams aren't preaching hatred in their mosques. They call Jews and Christians inferior, and we say they're just exercising their freedom of speech. When will the Europeans realize that the Islamists don't allow their critics the same right? After the West prostrates itself, they'll be more than happy to say that Allah has made the infidels spineless."

"---Oddly enough, my critics never specify how far I can go. How can you address problems if you're not even allowed to clearly define them? Like the fact that Muslim women at home are kept locked up, are raped and are married off against their will -- and that in a country in which our far too passive intellectuals are so proud of their freedom."



Information on MS. Ali can be found on Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali

She's currently in the United States, working for the American Enterprise Institute.
http://www.aei.org/scholars/scholarID.117,filter.all/scholar.asp


The Netherlands loss is our gain. How ironic that even when bright people are attracted to Europe, they still braindrain right on over to the United States.

In this instance, that probably has to do with the Dutch government being a bunch of paper-pushing wussies ever since they caved in to Napoleon over two centuries ago. Red-tape-ism, political cowardice, and apathy have long since become endemic diseases in the Netherlands - they've hardly amounted to a hill of beans after the assassination of Johan de Witt in any case.

And yes, I enjoy speaking ill of the Dutch. It's a lovely job, someone has to do it.

THREE WATERS: MENUCHOS, MERARIM, AND RAGLIM

Something in the comments on another blog made me think of waters.


So here are three wet spots for your consideration.


MEI MENUCHOS = An easily comprehended book by Rabbi Nachman Kahane, notable of Young Isroel of Yerushalayim’s old city, and an authority on Temple ceremony. It is an explanation of commentaries, a phrase by phrase mefarsh on tosafos.

The name Mei Menuchos means tranquil waters, as in Psalm 23 “Binot deshe yarbitzeini al mei menuchot yenehalani” (….He makes me rest in green meadows, and leads me beside the tranquil waters, oh yeah).


MEI MERARIM = Bitter Waters. As mentioned in Bamidbar, and expanded upon in Meseches Sotah, a man who suspects his wife of adultery brings her to an auto da fe presided over by a kohen.
[Bamidbar (Numbers), Parshas Naso (psukim 4:21 through 7:89); relevant verses: psukim 5:12 through 5:31.]

Tractate Sotah is the Talmud part which deals with straying women, who must swear that they are innocent, if there is no evidence that they went astray, and who will then be presumed not guilty. Mere suspicion on the husband’s part can be overcome by the wife taking an oath. The most peculiar part of the tractate, however, is the part in which a woman who is presumed to have given reason for suspicion can be forced to drink water mixed with floor-sweepings from the Temple - the sweepings or dust have to be poured upon the water, not the water upon the sweepings or dust. The exact amount of sweepings or dust, or substitutions for same if housekeeping has been by recently, is a matter of discussion.

Upon drinking this bitter water, the guilty woman shall be sterile, sick of appearance, and afflicted with a bloated stomach and a gimpy leg. But the innocent woman shall be blessed and conceive of a son.
It is not recorded what the thoughts are of a woman who has been subjected to this ordeal, nor what women thought of the entire idea. It would have been interesting if it had.

[After describing the meal offering which is to be made, the tractate veers off into legal differences between the genders, defilement, food, languages which can be used ritually, priestly benedictions, the king’s reading on the feast of tabernacles, military clergy, exemption from military service, and the breaking of a heifer’s neck. It's one heck of a read.]


MEI RAGLAYIM = Urine. But according to some rabbeyim it is actually water from a spring which has an odour, and other sources aver that it is a stinky grass.

Why this machlokes?

Because mei raglayim is connected with the manufacture of ketores (incense), a fragrant offering, and it would be considered an offense to bring so base a substance into the service of the Presence.

It should be noted, though, that chemicals in urine function as fixatives and stabilizers, and have been used for that purpose in the manufacture of fragrances and incense since antiquity, much like some of the compounds in modern day perfumes.
You may want to really look into the added fragrances in soaps and lotions – you will be slightly sickened. But. You smell very good.

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BITTER WATER

Now, given that mention was made above of the dust-water trial of an adulteress, I reproduce the relevant watery verses below.

5:12 "Daber el-Benei Yisrael veamarta alehem ish ish ki-tiste ishto umaala vo maal" (Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: If any man's wife go astray, and act unfaithfully against him),

5:13 "Veshachav ish ota shichvat-zera venelam meeinei isha venistera vehi nitmaa veed ein ba vehiv lo nitpasa" (and a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, she being defiled secretly, and there be no witness against her, neither she be caught in the act),

5:14 "Veavar alav ruach-kina vekine et-ishto vehiv nitmaa o-avar alav ruach-kina vekine et-ishto vehi lo nitmaa" (and the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be defiled; or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife and she be not defiled),

5:15 "Vehevi haish et-ishto el-ha kohen vehevi et-karbana aleiha asirit haeifa kemach seorim lo-yitzok alav shemen velo-yiten alav levona ki-minchat kenaot hu minchat zikaron mazkeret avon" (then shall the man bring his wife to the kahuna, and shall bring an offering for her, the tenth of an efah of barley flour; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense thereon, for it is a meal-offering of jealousy, a meal-offering of remembering, bringing iniquity to remembrance).

5:16 "Vehikriv ota ha kohen veheemida lifnei Adonoi" (And the kahuna shall bring her close, and set her before the Lord).

5:17 "Velakach ha kohen mayim kedoshim bichli-chares umin-heafar asher yihye bekarka hamishkan yikach hakohen venatan el-hamayim" (And the kahuna shall take holy water in a clay pot, and dust from the floor of the Mishkan, and put it into the water).

5:18 "Veheemid ha kohen et-haisha lifnei Adonoi ufara et-rosh haisha venatan al-kapeiha et minchat hazikaron minchat kenaot hiv uveyad hakohen yihyu mei hamarim hamearrim" (And the kahuna shall set the woman before the Lord, and loosen the woman's hair, and put the meal-offering of remembrance in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy, and the kahuna shall have in his hand the bitter waters that cause the curse).

5:19 "Vehishbia ota ha kohen veamar el-haisha im-lo shachav ish otach veim-lo satit tuma tachat ishech hinaki mimei hamarim hamearrim haele" (And the kahuna shall make her swear, and shall say to the woman: 'If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to filth, being under your husband, you will be free from this bitter water that causes the curse),

5:20 "Veat ki satit tachat ishech vechi nitmet vayiten ish bach et-shechavto mibaladei ishech" (but if you have strayed, being under your husband, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband),

5:21 "Vehishbia ha kohen et-ha isha bishvuat haala veamar hakohen laisha yiten adonai otach leala velishvua betoch amech betet Adonoi et-yerechech nofelet veet-bitnech tzava" (then the kahuna shall make the woman swear to this cursing oath, and the kahuna shall say to the woman "the Lord makes you a curse and a damnation among your people, when the Lord shall make your thigh wither and your belly bloat),

5:22 "Uvau hamayim hamearrim haele bemeayich latzbot beten velanpil yarech veamra haisha 'amen amen'" (and this water that causes the curse shall enter your bowels, and make your belly bloat up, and your thigh wither'; and the woman shall say: 'Amen, Amen.').

5:23 "Vechatav et-haalot haele ha kohen basefer umacha el-mei hamarim" (And the kahuna shall write these curses on a scroll, and he shall dissolve them in the bitter water).

5:24 "Vehishka et-haisha et-mei hamarim hamearrim uvau va hamayim hameararim lemarim" (And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall flow into her and become bitter).

5:25 "Velakach ha kohen miyad haisha et minchat hakenaot vehenif et-hamincha lifnei Adonoi vehikriv ota el-hamizbeach" (And the kahuna shall take the meal-offering of jealousy from of the woman's hand, and shall wave the meal-offering before the Lord, and bring it to altar).

5:26 "Vekamatz ha kohen min-hamincha et-azkarata vehiktir hamizbecha veachar yashke et-haisha et-hamayim" (And the kahuna shall take a handful of the meal-offering, as the memorial part, and smolder it upon the altar, after which he shall make the woman drink the water).

5:27 "Vehishka et-hamayim vehaita im-nitmea vatimol maal beisha uvau va hamayim hamearrim lemarim vetzavta vitna venafla yerecha vehaita haisha leala bekerev ama" (And when he has made her drink the water, it shall happen, that if she is defiled and has acted unfaithfully against her husband, that the water that causes the curse shall flow into her and become bitter, and her belly shall bloat, and her thigh shall wither, and the woman shall be a curse among her people).

5:28 "Veim-lo nitmea haisha utehora hiv venikta venizrea zara" (And if the woman is NOT defiled, but clean - then she shall be cleared, and shall become pregnant),

5:29 "Zot torat hakenaot asher tiste isha tachat isha venitmaa" (This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes aside, and is defiled),

5:30 "O ish asher taavor alav ruach kina vekine et-ishto veheemid et-haisha lifnei adonai veasa la hakohen et kol-hatora hazot" (or when the spirit of jealousy come upon a man, and he be jealous of his wife, then he shall bring the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall enforce this law against her).

5:31 "Venika haish meavon vehaisha hahiv tisa et-avona" (And the man shall be clear from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity).


So then. We know what Rashi thinks of this. But what do you think of it? What does this strange passage say to you?

FERMENTED SKUNK PARTS

I was over at the tobacco store enjoying a pipe when the phone rang. One of the owners picked up, then turned to me and asked if I knew of a pipe-tobacco that came in a plaid or tartan plastic pouch.

Did I ever.

Clan. Clan Pipe Tobacco.

Clan is the bane of existence, one of the signs of the coming apocalypse. Clan is an aromatic pipe-tobacco made by Theodorus Niemeyer in the Netherlands. It is indescribably horrid.
Please imagine cheap artificially flavoured fruit-candy steam-pressed into sheets of industrial packing material, then sliced into thin sodden sugary shreds of badness.

Then drizzled with fruity shampoo.


In my youth, many well-meaning people of doubtful discrimination and taste would seriously urge me to smoke it, because it smelled so good, instead of what I had in my pipe at the time.
They loved the fine aroma of Clan, and made sure I knew that. If I had any consideration for humanity at all, surely, they seemed to suggest, I would smoke Clan.
Even some of my classmates smoked it; the sickly sweet swamp-reek of their pipes was noticeable in the school courtyard still several hours later. Wherever you find excessively hairy men with wide-lapelled shirts open to the waist, showing off their tans, chest fur, and cheap 14K gold jewelry, you will find packets of this nauseating tobacco - soggy, sugary, foetid......


Other pipe-smokers have been lyrical and eloquent about this product.


Consider the following text-fragments as a guest post by an entire community of angry men.

"The whole house smells like a Bangkok massage parlour, and I'm afraid I'm going to hurl - cheap perfume and floor sweepings combined - candied camel dung - the driest, nastiest, harshest chemical crap I've ever smoked - I want my mother - I can't drink soda till my tongue heals."

"This is evil pubic hair. It smokes hot and bites like a rabid weasel."

"This crap gives me nightmares."

"I'm sweating and sick to my stomach after half a bowl. They should print on the label 'warning, may cause bleeding nostrils and insanity'."

"Lit easily, considering that it's so dry, but holy crap this smokes like napalm. I couldn't finish it, and it left a fruity funk in the pipe that doesn't go away even after several other tobaccos. I swear they must've sauced this with roach spray."

"Suicide by smoking fermented skunk arse."

"Avoid this like you would an elderly perfumed tart. The smell stays around for hours and tells your wife that you've done something nasty."

Clear and succinct, no?

Apparently the gentleman on the other end of the line was not pleased when told that it was a drugstore tobacco and he should look for it at Rite-Aid or Walgreens. His grandfather had smoked it, his uncle had smoked it, and possibly his dad, it was a darn fine product. And it was very very wrong of the tobacco store not to carry it!

Some people are beyond salvation.

TOBACCO INDEX


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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
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LUISA MORGANTINI PROVES HERSELF ODIOUS

Trade between the European Union and Israel should be halted in protest at human rights violations in the Palestinian territories, per Luisa Morgantini, a vice-president of the European Parliament, speaking to a United Nations conference in Brussels.

Luisa Morgantini has called for the agreement under which Israel currently enjoys free trade in industrial goods, and preferential treatment of farm produce entering the European Union to be suspended.

[Info source: http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article8974.shtml]


Luisa Morgantini is a Member of the European Parliament. She has been a member of the Italian Communist Party since the early sixties.

Not surprisingly, she is also associated with Women In Black, having been one of the founders of the Italian branch of the Women in Black organization.

[I wrote about the Women in Black here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/04/women-in-black-some-more-background.html]



MARXIST-LENINIST WHACK-JOB

Like others among the Euro-sinister, Luisa Morgantini demands that the UN send peacekeeping troops to Gaza and the West Bank to protect Palestinians after they have committed atrocities.
And, again like many, she believes that she has a natural right to opinionate on issues which do not concern her, and which her leaders, her colleagues, and her kind have done much to make worse since 1948.


Most telling is this quote: "Any negotiations on an overall peace agreement should be based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the certainty of a Palestinian State alongside the State of Israel with Jerusalem as a shared capital."

Sweetheart, a Palestinian state is by no means a certainty and arguably not desirable in the first place, Jerusalem is indivisible, the UN is a forum for third-world gangster regimes and has accomplished nothing since the fifties, and, just so you know, Italian Communists are a tired cliché.


Europeans should realize that their voice in world affairs is far less significant than they assume, and that their opinions are hopelessly dated and immaterial. They have not been able to control events since they lost their empires, and given the quisling postures of their politicians and the arrogance of their intellectuals, it is no surprise that the only importance Europe has in world affairs is inversely proportionate to their reliance on America for their collective security and prosperity.

Many European politicians should be considered dangerous and discouraged from travel or public speaking. One rather wishes that the European public would understand how ill they are served by their party hacks.

FRUSTRATION MOUNTS IN GAZA

The suffering in Gaza continues to get worse, as Arabs gain experience with self-rule.


Quote:
"The price of cigarettes has soared in the last few months. Why? Because Hamas decided that cigarette taxes would be an excellent source of income for Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's government."
[Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3445001,00.html]


Have they NO sympathy for the man in the street?
What will Abu Hackitylung do for relaxation now? He can't go the cinema (un-Islamic), he can't listen to his tapes of Umm Kaltoum wailing about the suffering of the poor repressed Arabs (hopelessly irrelevant since the great Spring victory - everybody is eating strawberries and singing songs in praise of the great leader), and he cannot even pray in public anymore (per the BBC, public prayer in Gaza is considered counter-revolutionary http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6978540.stm ).
And he already gave up liquor for lent. Or something.


Now "they" are interfering with the one thing he likes doing more than shooting off fireworks.

It's a crying shame, is what it is.

I really blame the smoking Nazis. It was only a matter of time before that bunch imposed their evil agenda on the newly liberated territory.

The world must demand that the rights of the smokers of Gaza are not further trampled by the liberal commie mamzers who wish to regulate tobacco.

Break the blockade - Camels for Gaza now!

ROCKET VIDEO - GET YOUR DANDER UP

I just came from Jameel's site, where I saw a video that is making me shake.

Here's the link:

http://muqata.blogspot.com/2007/09/schooltime-in-sderot.html

You have to see this.

Despite all the high-flown language from the various groups working on behalf of the Palestinians, this video shows who is one the right side, and why the pro-Palestine side is comprised of morally bankrupt people.

You can also view the video here:

http://dovbear.blogspot.com/2007/09/schooltime-in-sderot.html

It has been cross-posted.


The video shows what happens when a rocket fired from Gaza (by whichever group is either boasting about it or claiming plausible deniability at the time) is about to land at a school in Sderot.
Bluntly put: Palestinian militants target children.


These are the same Palestinian militants that so many Europeans and Berkeleyites idolize. These are the same Palestinian militants that former president Jimmy Carter says we should talk to. These are the same Palestinian militants that Dutch and Scandinavian politicians have met with on fact-finding junkets, and praised as reasonable people.

These are the same Palestinian militants who used to send bomb-vest wearing teenagers into Israel to commit mayhem in a public place. Now, no longer able to send their suicide-bombers into Israel because of the security barrier, they send their rockets into Israel to kill civilians.


The material for the rockets is smuggled in by the Egyptians and paid for by the Saudis. The expertise and know-how comes from the Iranians. The approval and applause comes from Europe and Berkeley. All over the world, spokesmen for worthy causes commit apologesis about these acts. All over the world, right-thinking people are outraged over Israel's firm defense of her people. The UN standardly demands that Israel acquiesce to demands from the Arab side.

There is a constant international barrage aimed at Israel.

But little, if anything at all, about Qassam rockets.


Tell me again, WHY do we HAVE to listen to the international community?
I think I must be missing something. I'd love to hear your explanation.

THREE LATAKIA: MACBAREN'S HH VINTAGE SYRIAN, G.L.PEASE'S KENSINGTON, PETERSON’S OLD DUBLIN

Note: There is nothing Jewish in this post – unless you are a pipe-smoker. In which case you should know that shalom beis may be seriously disturbed by smoking these pipe tobaccos, and that the author considers all three of these mixtures excellent for fragrantly lengthening the last whisps of Shabbes into twilight, far better than a container of cloves and nutmeg.

[How you resolve the conflict is your own affair - but I'll gladly read how you did it.]



HH VINTAGE SYRIAN

MacBaren is known for their spuncuts and mild Danish Aromatics, some sauced, some top-cased. They are not at all known for doing anything daring with Latakia or Orientals. Their previous foray into wife-repellent was ‘Latakia Blend’, which despite the name failed to deliver the promised punch, though it was a decent cut roll-cake Cavendish . Not a bad smoke if you expected typical MacBaren tobacco, but a Syrian would not have recognized it.

The Vintage Syrian is different. Indeed, there’s a hefty measure of Latakia in it – by MacBaren standards. And Oriental. But it should not be considered a full blend, being more on the cross-over point between mild English, light Balkan, and Scottish-Oriental. The grassy component in the tin aroma indicates some air-cured leaf.
By my guess, roughly forty percent Latakia, about twenty percent Oriental, ten percent fire-cured American, and the remainder a mild-medium base of Virginias. All steamed to meld. It is not tinned wet, and can be smoked with little or no drying once the tin is opened.

It does not smoke particularly richly, being a pleasant old-fashioned European mixture with Oriental leaf. Which is shockingly new for the Danes. It is affordable and will not scare away women and children. There is a nice touch of sweetness. By Danish standards it is both risqué and balanced; no mean achievement.

Recommendation: buy a few tins to mature for a few years, but don’t go wild.


G.L.PEASE - KENSINGTON

This blend is reminiscent of Samuel Gawith, both the Squadron Leader Mixture and the Skiff Mixture. It has the fine underlying Virginia tang of Skiff, and the Turkish dominance of Squadron Leader. Latakia-wise, it is right in between. It is a very good blend. Set aside a few tins to age.


PETERSON’S OLD DUBLIN

This is a typical old-fashioned English mixture, and a good exemplar of the type, being a medium-full Latakia blend with a healthy dosis of Turkish leaf, and a shot of black Virginia to round-out the sootiness of the Latakia. It has more Turkish than Dunhill’s Early Morning Pipe, more of the Virginia tone than Dunhill’s Standard Mixture Medium. That would put it in the range of Dunhill’s 965, but it is far better behaved.
Lovers of the Dunhill mixtures will find much here that appeals, as will also the smokers of Esoterica Tabaciana's Margate and Germain’s Latakia Mixture (virtually the same as Margate, which is not surprising, as both are made in the same factory), but it is less wet in the tin. It does need a little drying.

If your wife hates your favourite tobaccos, you wil probably love this.

TOBACCO INDEX


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NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
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All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
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SATMAR WERE THE FIRST JEWS

Er veist, naturlech, az Moish Rabbeinu a Satmar chossid iz?

Einfech. Es shtait in Chumesh az der mishkan war tzein amois (60 tfachem) hoch, Moishe Rabbeinu war oych tzein amois (60 tfachem)..... which means he could ONLY have worn a shtraimel (davka a plutshikke biber-pelts, nisht an emmese groise fuks-peltste kitshmeh, vi heint geveintlich iz), rather than a kulpak, or a spodek.

Kler, nu?

So, Moishe could only be a Satmar chossid because it is sai vi sai a MAIN Satmarer minneg to wear a flat hat, ober only a minor Bresloiver minneg, siz not so common - if he had been a Bresloiver, flat hats would be now main Bresloiver minneg (instead of the daivuhzity we see today), ergo, mamish, he could only have been Satmar.

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

In short: Moses and the tabernacle were both ten amos in height, so Moses could not possibly have worn any other hat than the Satmar flying saucer, which sits level on the head and does not extend above it. Ya, the flying saucer is also worn by others, like Breslov. But Breslov wear a variety of hats - they have no real minhag on that issue. If Moses were Breslov, they and not Satmar would now mostly wear flying saucers. Only Satmar mostly wear the flying saucer. Ergo, quod erat demonstrandum, Moses had to have been a Satmar chossid.

[From which we also know that Bobov and Ger puff themselves up. Quelle hubris, gavalt! Have you SEEN their arrogant hats?!? ]

The logic is conclusive.



Unless, of course, Moses crouched.

Perish that thought, it is inconceivable. What are you, some kind of Misnaged?

CURRENT LEAVES

A while back I remarked that the GLPease's Samarra did not remind me of anything in particular.

[Samarra contains Cyprian, Turkish, various Virginia tobaccos, and a touch of Perique. A remarkable smoking mixture.]


I was mistaken. It is reminds me of Royal Ransom, a full Latakia pipe-tobacco mixture by Drucquer and Sons in which some of the flavour was a particularly nice black Virginia. If one aged the mixture, the traces at the extremes of the flavour-spectrum faded, and a fruity depth came forward. The tin of Samarra I'm currently smoking was compounded nearly three years ago, in 2004 leminyonem. A distinct fruity agedness has indeed come forward, helped no doubt by the Perique (lacking in Royal Ransom), and maturing has given it a familiar perfume. Noticeably different, yet same.


Other pipe-tobaccos I have at my desk:

Yenidje Highlander, by McClelland. McClelland has finally gotten it right. This is very nice, despite the wisp of that ketchuppy odour all their Virginias end up with. The Yenidje and Latakia are in fine balance. Goes well with Scotch. And would probably also be very nice with cognac.

Manhattan Afternoon, by Cornell & Diehl. I do not know what is so particularly Manhattan-afternoonish about 'naturally sweet golden Virginia leaf with a drop of honey sliced into flakes'. The tin-aroma is more aged English flake than Manhattanish. But it is a soft and very pleasant smoke, with the faintest hint of bee bottom.

Durbar Mixture, by Dunhill. Turkish, Turkish, Turkish, Turkish, Turkish, Turkish, Virginia and Latakia. Turkish delight. A narrow-ribbon cut. The Virginias add a subtle fruitiness, augmenting the faint sweetness of the Oriental. There must be some Smyrna in this.
This displeases the delicate nose of the significant other.

Dunhill Light Flake. Which is light only in relation to flakes which are not. Similar to other 'light' flakes, pressed reds, and pure Virginias, but with a touch of that Lakeland perfume which augments the fragrance of the leaves. Smooth. Refined. And therefore decadent.

Frog Morton's Across the Pond. Why do some blenders insist on cutesypoo names? Could they not simply have called this an English exotic? Not a bad blend by any means, but I do not understand why some people swear by it. Degustibus non disputandem est.

Kensington, by G. L. Pease. Tinned in early 2004, leminyonem. A restrained Balkan.

[In addition to Samarra and Kensington, Greg Pease makes other fine blends. See here: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/03/pipe-tobacco-some-g-l-pease-blends.html]


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

Note: Drucquer and Sons on University Avenue in Berkeley went out of business in the early nineties, when the then owner miscalculated the impact of higher taxes and tighter smoking restrictions. By that time it was a shell of what it had once been. It had reached its apogee during the Robert Rex years. Robert sold the store in the early eighties, and is now living somewhere in the foothills.

[More about Drucquers here: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/10/drucquer-sons-ltd-pipe-tobacco-blends.html ]


There is no decent tobacconist in Berkeley anymore - the only "tobacconist" in town is near Sather Gate, and sells shisha and perfumed dreck, plus clove cigarettes and cheap stogies. A head shop, more or less. Lighting up near the campus will get you screamed at by the smoking-nazis. Or smacked across the chops with a sweaty Birkenstock - probably by a communist vegan.

TOBACCO INDEX


==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================

NEW BLOGGER: STORYS

There's a new member of the J-blogosphere.

Here: http://wwwshaltiel.blogspot.com/

One hour from Jerusalem. Not yet halachically an adult. Writes in English.
Say howdy to him.

SPARE THE AIR

Spare The Air days, for those of you not zoiche to live in California, mean that the day is expected to be aza hot and wind-still that there may be rolling blackouts due to energy usage, and there is expected to be a dense layer of pollution hazing the sky over the Bay Area. We are so lucky.

On a spare the air day, the public is encouraged to ride public transit (which is free on most transit systems), take the trains to work instead of driving, turn off unnecessary appliances, keep energy usage as low as possible, and generally speaking co-operate for the common good.

Asthmatics may wish to have their inhalers handy.


WHAT GOES THROUGH PEOPLE'S MINDS ON A SPARE THE AIR DAY?

So glad you asked.

Here's a peek:

"Wow, the bus will be crowded today, I had better take my car in to work. Traffic should be easy; everybody'll be on the bus. Park just about anywhere! This is gonna be good. Weeeeeeee!"

Total gridlock by nine-thirty.

The street that runs past the office building normally jams up at the beginning of the evening commute. Today, by lunch time, it was solid. The air outside is rank with exhaust.

Yep, we're sparing tons of air. Leastways, we're hardly using any.

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

On a related note, certain intersections in the downtown have a reek to them during the summer that defies description - a sickly, stale-sewer pongue that recalls both bodily wastes and drunkard's projectiles, while simultaneously prompting thoughts of depression, ennui, gloom, and the municipal dump after the rains, or low-tide at the salt flats.

California Street, from Drumm and California to Sansome and California: the smell at it's ripest. One of the oldest sewers in the Western Hemisphere is under this stretch, still sodden with the ablutory solids of the Roman legions, left behind during the last invasion shortly after the ice age. The Roman soldiers ate fava beans, did you know that?

Pine Street, Post Street, and Market Street: You know that nasty sinus infection you sometimes get? The one that happens when your system has been assaulted by mid-summer allergens for several weeks? The one with the solid green......... Yep, that one. This complicated street-junction brings back smell-borne echoes from that trip to Vancouver in the year when you first had the infection - it lasted for months. Ah, the memories! It was a wonderful year.

Battery and Market Streets: This one is good. At least there are enough street people sleeping near the bronze statue of the naked men and the mechanical device that you can't smell the sewer. That, and the choking exhausts of thousands of motorists heading towards the bridge, plus the fumes from Peet's Coffees and Teas, Noah's Bagels, Quiznos, and a cookie store - a creamy deliquescent aroma that on a good day clashes with the cheap perfume of wandering office workers, on a bad day has the density and appeal of three-day old pizza from Golden Boy. Pity you forgot to put it in the fridge. It's been making love to the flies on the kitchen counter, and has reached a stage of fruitfulness which is hard to imagine. You don't cook at home much, do you?

Drumm and Sacramento: No, you didn't suddenly and massively lose control, it really does smell like that. So stop surreptitiously feeling your rear-end, stand confidently erect, and inhale deep. Mmmm, the smell of childhood. Things just haven't been so intense since you started smoking.

Montgomery and Sacramento: This is where fermentation from the alleyways and black fumes from delivery trucks clash. Slightly chemical, with a room-note of cabbage-cider. A bass-note of black clay, fish, and if you're lucky, seaweed. Truly one of our more stellar nose-experiences. But you have to be there at the right time, as the afternoon windtunnel effect blows this away by tea-time. I would suggest an early lunch - have a Burrito at one of the tables in Commercial Alley. Now note how the beans and salsa clash with the rubbery rotteness.
You don't know how spoiled you are.

Battery and Pine Street: This is where Richard became a man. The troll-woman from Texas (I would've called her Grendel's mom, but that nickname did not stick) had an argument here six years ago, during which one of the other denizens of the street uttered doubts about her gender. Not entirely unfounded. To prove him wrong, she pulled up her dress and showed him and over a hundred other people that, biologically at least, she was all woman. This intersection smells like you imagine her mouth does, all diseased, wet, and chancroid. The two Starbucks facing each other try valiantly, but cannot still the odeur. Richard still has nighmares from that event.



Ah, the smell of San Francisco, it is the smell of victory in the morning.

SATURDAY AMONG THE CANNIBALS

Firstly, let me say that I am ever so glad I do not look Jewish. In any way. And that there should be brocha for that.

I spent all day Saturday at the Sabeel conference at Saint John's Presbyterian Church over in Berkeley. I'm Goyish enough that I can do so.


Secondly, I wish to also clarify that the gap between the Dutch Reformed and the Presbyterians is not just doctrinal. Presbyterians are, from the point of view of Shtrenge Dutch Calvinistim, a bunch of wussies and quislings. They've never had to fight for the life of their creed against a superpower. For them, being sneeringly disapproving is a luxury they take for granted.



SABEEL

This is an organization that claims that it is " an international peace movement initiated by Palestinian Christians in the Holy Land who seek a just peace based on two states-Palestine and Israel-as defined by international law and existing United Nations resolutions". Which means that they seek the destruction of Israel by appealing to the cotton wool between the ears of many ignorant Christians.

The conference I attended, advertised as "Breaking Down The Wall Of Silence: Voices We Need To Hear - a Sabeel Conference to inform and stimulate thoughtful action toward a just resolution to the Palestine-Israel conflict", was organized by Friends of Sabeel.

It turned out to be a rather unsubtle attempt at brainwashing. And, in the case of many of those sweet little old Presbies, it probably succeeded.



THE MORNING

Self-praising pro-Pal speeches by several people, including one by a smirking Roman Catholic priest from San Francisco.

[I mentioned to a priggish female sitting next to me that my ancestors had fled Brabant five centuries ago to get away from Catholics and their violent self-righteousness, and here I was actually listening to one of those people pontificate! She looked daggers at me, moved several seats away, and avoided me for the rest of the day. And I feel good about that.]

High-minded jibber-jabber. Chris Brown draws several comparisons with Apartheid - like many South Africans, he acts like he owns the word. The Apartheid theme will be repeated ad-nauseum throughout the day, by every speaker, in every possible way.
He fought apartheid, now he's fighting Jewheid.
We're supposed to feel admiring yet sorry for him, or something.

Huwaida Arraf talks about going back to her parents land, and how her people are suffering. Emotions, emotions.... are we supposed to feel sorry again?

[I think this was the woman who at previous hate-fests wailed that she couldn't go back to the town where she was born, until someone pointed out that she was from Cleveland....]

Nearly an hour of horrific images, including a short film of a demonstration being teargassed, with weeping children and wailing women, and charges by riot police in an orchard. Heavily edited, and without background information. Precisely calculated to draw gasps and condemnation from the audience. Who now feel indignant, and sorry.

This is followed by a passionate rant by Anna Baltzer, in which she states that settlements are colonies of the evil occupying population, whose inhabitants are impoverished Israelis, paid to reside illegally on land stolen from the Arabs. Subtle hint that the other Israelis don't want those poor folks too close, and in any case real people prefer to live in Tel Aviv. Asserts that the overwhelming majority of the settlers moved to the West-Bank for financial reasons (having been paid to do so), and that a lot of the settlements were founded as outposts on seized Palestinian land by violence-prone extremists.

Quotes: "Civilian settlers carrying around these HUGE weapons - a weird power dynamic". -- "Palestinians (forced to) abandon their ancestral homeland". -- "A very violent settler attack".

She also discourses about Zionists pillaging Palestinian villages and committing mayhem. The term she uses, if I remember correctly, is 'massacre'.

The gist is that settlers are violent Jewish brutes who outnumber and bully poor sensitive Palestinians.

She assures us that she is a good Jew, not like the others.



THE AFTERNOON

All of the themes above were raised again during the keynote speech after lunch, by Phyllis Bennis, who, almost obscenely relishing the accusation, spoke about the "massacre in Jenin", asserting that the refugee camp was wiped off the map. She also accused Israel of trying to create an ethnically pure Jewish state - framing it in such a way as to draw a subconscious link with another such attempt at ethnic purity.



SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS....

Nearly every speaker tried to convince us that they had nothing against Jews, many of their friends were Jewish, they loved Jews oh boy did they ever and what a pity that some of them refused to see the how right the Palestinians were and how wrong the Zionists but what else can you really expect from those people and in any case they themselves only speak to the sympathetic apologetic pro-Pally Jews nowadays, which is the Zionist Jews' fault, they started it and they are heartless, cruel, and calculating.

Subtle suggestions of Jewish plots, and too much Jewish influence in the halls of power, and in Christian churches. The Jewish establishment. The Jewish lobby. The Jewish censorship.

Subtle, in this case, means fairly blatant.

No mention, of course, of the Sfardic / Mizrahi exodus from the Muslim world. No mention of the barrage of Qassams. No mention of the unceasing attempts to kill Jews. No mention of anything that would provide context or perspective. Just an unceasing flow of anti-Israel rhetoric, from eight-thirty in the morning till lunch-time, and then for another hour afterwards, before the workshops on practical anti-Semitism and how to propagate hate...... oops, I mean the workshops on "Why Divestment Is the Best Method to End the Occupation" (by Fahad Abu-Akel, room 2005, from 2:15 PM to 3:15), and "Christian Zionism in Mainstream Churches" (by Rosemary Radford Reuther, room 200, from 3:30 to 4:30).

There were many other workshops. It was a veritable smorgasbord of love.



PROTESTERS IN FRONT

A singular bright spot was seeing the Oakland Women In Black silently protesting in front, as people were entering the grounds. At some point, a livid troll ran past screaming that he needed a felt-tip pen, he was going to make a sign warning people about the Oakland Women In Black, because they weren't REAL Women in Black (correct, some of them had beards), they..... were..... EVIL ZIONISTS!!!

He never did get his warning-sign made. I wonder what he would've put on it. Perhaps "warning, may cause awareness of reality".



BREAKS

I may have made a few intolerant Protestantish noises during the various breaks. It depends upon your point of view - if you were a Lutheran, I probably offended you. Not sorry.
And if you were the Anglican, you are probably still sick to the pit of your stomach. Again, not sorry.
I didn't notice any Baptists or Eastern Orthodox, so I'm not sorry there either. And as for the Methodists, not sorry, I'm sure you've got a sense of humour. How on earth could y'all still be Methodists otherwise? Well?

Once again, not sorry.

Y'all can be as sorry a bunch as y'wanna be. Not me.


During one of the breaks, as I was grabbing all the free literature that I could get my hands on off one of the tables, I made a snarky reference to that famous line by Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel......
"The world is founded upon FREE things.....".



ATTENDEES, ACTIVISTS, ATTITUDES

Despite many of the attendees being clearly trusting and uncritical subjects for indoctrination (who, after all, really wants to believe that the passionate and friendly speaker is utterly evil?), there were some who were not pleased at the one-sided Israel bashing. A number of them left early. Perhaps the rough treatment they received from Palestinians dressed as IDF border guards acting out the checkpoints on the lunch-queue also got to them.

There were also enough pro-Palestinian activists floating around that critical comments were quickly and firmly dealt with. Enough true-believers that skeptics knew how unwelcome a realistic point of view would be. Room for only two kinds of attendees - the already convinced, and the going-to-be-convinced.

Much of the conference was a lot of hot-air about non-violent resistance, with an implied (and at least twice plainly stated) justification of the use of violence, because, after all, it's also a valid form of resistance. Non-violence is better public relations than an exploded bus.
But let us please not mention the bus. Or the pizza parlour.

I left at five o'clock, foregoing the last hour of indoctrination. I had been spotted by too many known elements of the other side at that point, and nearly ten hours of being the black man at a KKK convention was starting to wear a bit. Let's just say I needed to lift the sheet and get some fresh air. Plus, not having partaken of the lunch that was included in the admission fee, I had a screaming head-ache and a horrible attitude.


Well actually, I had the horrible attitude from the moment I got to Berkeley. Who am I kidding?


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

Oh, I nearly forgot! Cindy and Craig Corrie spoke tear-jerkingly about their daughter. What agony, what heartbreak, oh sniff. Who can forget the outrage generated by Rachel's unfortunate filmed accident? Just like that little fella hit in the crossfire that the French press showed the entire world, Rachel Corrie's demise has been the one story that more than any other (and there are always SO many others) proves conclusively how evil the Jews are and how virtuous the concerned pro-Pally side. As, I'm sure, they have already told you many times. Such selfless martyrs.

THE PROBLEM WITH UO FROM AN MO POV

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NOTE: This guest-posting was deleted in the interests of peace. The management of this blog has no desire to gratuitously cause hurt or harm - we are very particular about that. I apologize if any of you were upset. The writer of the guest post has been pursuaded to withdraw his text and carefully review it for accuracy, and may submit it later, but seeing as we're only three hours away from shabbes, it may be awhile before I get to read it.

PS. The writer has not apologized for writing what he did - he defends his opinion. But he acknowledges that it was not wise to say it here.

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TOMORROW TEMPORARILY INTOLERANT

I will be at an all-day event tomorrow, at which I will be surrounded by people with whom I would rather not associate.

The venue has a minor religious connotation, the event itself does also.
This is not an open-minded event, and these folks are not 'nice' people.


Consequently, I intend to let the rigid, vicious, venomous, Netherlandish side of my personality and my heritage float to the surface of my mind.

To whit: All the world's conflicts pale in comparison to the struggle to preserve the culture, integrity, and rights, of the Netherlands and Flanders. Which have for centuries been under siege by the French and the Walloons, more recently by the Maghrebis.
And I do mean ALL the world's conflicts. Bloody-mindedly so.


Tomorrow, the plight of Tibet will be nothing - what does it have to do with the flood of Walloon carpet-baggers who have swamped formerly Flemish lands, and even taken over Brussels?
The crisis in Darfur, the enmity between the Greeks and the Turks, the suffering of Christians in Maluku, the poor bleeding Kashmiris, the savagery in Afghanistan, Chechnia, and Rwanda, and even the agony of the victims of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans - all these too are quite immaterial; the eternal need to expel Walloons and their quislings and collaborators will tomorrow be uppermost. Rhetorically, at least. As a form of mental self-preservation. "Our cause is the most important one in the world, screw you and your pathetic bleedingheart sympathy for that bunch of buggery losers. Who did you say you were with?"


I would like to remind my readers, illogically rant-segueing therefrom, that 'our' finest hour was July eleventh, in the year 1302, when we extinguished France's hegemonistic ambitions, slaughtered her knights (feudal aristocrats!), and preserved Western liberty and popular democracy on the field of golden spurs, outside Kortryk. This, scarcely two months after liberating Brugge (on May 18th, 1302) from the degenerates, and laving her streets with the blood of every Frenchspeaker in the city, a pox upon them.
Both of these glorious achievements have been celebrated in song and story, and are our proudest victories.

..................

I am by no means a cultural-relativist.

I shall of course be subtle - there may be half-breed Walloons present. There will certainly be willing Germans and useful idiots.

I'll probably write about it on Monday. That will be a form of purging. A purificatory ritual, so to speak.

THE ANTI-CHRIST IS ALIVE TODAY AND IS A MALE JEW

I received the text below from a correspondent deep in the American south. For obvious reasons, I will not name him, but I will vouch for character and truthfulness.

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


The Pastor in a Pentecostal church my wife attends (both of which will remain unnamed) gave a statement that caused me some surprise. He stated that "the Anti-Christ is probably alive today and is a male Jew.

Slack jawed I approached the Pastor after the service and asked "Is he alive and here today?" "Probably" answers the Pastor. Because when he appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ." "And he will be Jewish" I ask? "Of course he'll be Jewish" he said. "Further, he'll pretend to be Christ. The fact is the Lord is coming soon, and he'll be an adult at the presentation of himself, he must be alive somewhere."

Apparently there is still a measurable amount of anti-Semitism in our Southern States, although acts of violence are quite rare. The 2005 survey by the Anti-Defamation League reported 1432 acts of anti-Semitism in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and so on. The figure included 877 acts of harassment, including verbal intimidation, threats and physical assaults.

It seem the viewpoint of Southern Evangelical Christians is that all people must accept Jesus Christ as their Savior in order to find salvation. It follows that from their point of view all people should be given the chance to convert to Christianity, regardless of race, color or current creed. Not to evangelize to Jews would be tantamount to discrimination irregardless of how distasteful Southern Jews find effort.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the U.S., has explicitly rejected suggestions that it should back away from seeking to convert Jews, a position that critics have called anti-Semitic but that Baptists see as consistent with their view that salvation is found solely though faith in Christ. In 1996, the SBC approved a resolution calling for efforts to seek the conversion of Jews "as well as for the salvation of 'every kindred and tongue and people and nation."

The Christian Identity movement, the Ku Klux Klan and other White supremacy groups claim to be very strongly Christian in nature; they are vehemently anti-Semitic, as well as racist. The Klan is also demonstrably anti-Catholic preferring Southern Baptist or my friends the Pentecostals as well and some other smaller sects.

I'm finding that a racial belief common among these groups, is an alternative history doctrine. This doctrine absolutely denies that modern Jews have any racial connection to Israel of the Bible. Instead, it is widely believed the true racial Israel and true humans, are the white race. Wild huh!

Many other Evangelicals agree with the position, and some have similarly been supporting efforts specifically seeking Jews' conversion. Among the controversial groups that has found support from some Evangelical churches is Jews for Jesus, which claims that Jews can find their Jewish faith become complete by accepting Jesus as the Messiah. In fact, in my wife's church they like to point me out as a Completed Jew as if they had beat the Jew out of me and formed me into a more complete human being.

Seems to me that the Christians and the Muslims have the same agenda they just compete against each other for market share.


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

I got the writer's permission to post this to my blog. I welcome comment, as I'm certain he does also. But I would also like to request some sensitivity to the fact that the writer is in between worlds, so to speak.

Still, if you thought that Christians were a nice safe bunch of tolerant softies, please note that you were mistaken. There is much about Christianity, even today, which can be hard and brutal. Even, dare I say it, unaccepting of the 'other'.

RED RAPPAREE & SAMARRA

Some tobacco mixtures, no longer extant in their original form and having been farmed out to successive outside manufacturers, have prompted profound memory-shift in their erstwhile smokers. What might be called a migration of remembered sensations, if you prefer.

Memory is odd that way. What one person remembers about a taste or smell may focus particularly on a characteristic that someone else's nose elides over entirely.
[A rose is not a rose is not a rose is not a rose.]


Rattrays Red Rapparee is one such blend.

I smoked several tins of it in the late seventies and early eighties. It was quite good. I do not remember it with any sharp detail, yet others do. But they all remember differently.

Accordingly they have described it as:

1) A nice mild-medium mixture.
2) Quite gentle, medium English - smells delightfully oriental.
3) Medium English blend at its best.
4) Medium Oriental blend.
5) A complex, mid-strength blend. -
6) A fine all-day smoke.
7) A nice full blend.
8) A hefty English blend at its finest.
9) A fairly stout English blend.
10) An end of the day blend, an outdoor smoke.

Terms used are spicy, sweet, musty, robust, fragrant, wonderful, perfumed, Oriental, pungent, dense, rounded. Classic. Kaleidoscopic.

In addition to being compared to that other famous Rattray blend, Black Mallory, it has been likened to Balkan Sobranie, Dunhill 965, Dunhill London Mixture, Dunhill Standard Mixture (Medium), Samuel Gawith's Squadron Leader, and several of Greg Pease's mixtures (including Samarra).

Lament and keen for what Red Raparree used to be is intense, poetic, lyrical, nay even tragic and melodramatic, among the tribe with wooden objects in their face.

Makes me wish I had smoked it........ Oh wait, I did!

Meh.



On the other hand, I smoked a pipe-full of G. L. Pease's Samarra this morning.
Medium strength, aged red Virginia with Latakia, Turkish, and a touch of Perique. Sweet, spicy, and well rounded. The Latakia and Turkish are in perfect equilibrium.
It was extremely good indeed.

It did not remind me of anything in particular, not even of the bowls I had last year. Something else. I cannot put my finger on it.

TOBACCO INDEX


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