That should be rule number one. Our side's rather crappy slogans become infinitesimally worse when Borat has good volume and yells something strange and unintelligible.
Once one finally figgers out what the heck he's hollering, one wonders what the heck is in his mind, oy I'm telling you.
[This posting, in case you're already baffled, is about the anti-Israel demonstration in front of the Federal Building mentioned in my previous post, and about our pro-Israel counter-demonstration.]
Rule number two should be that if the other side can't give more than two-days' notice of their intent to publicly demand the destruction of Israel, we probably shouldn't show up.
For several reasons.
With only 24 hours advance notice they themselves will not have a significant presence - two dozen angry hairy people simply look rather silly, and will not really influence anybody who hasn't already been lost to civilization.
Another reason is that when we have to organize a counter-protest that rapidly, we will not have a significant presence, and we'll only irritate the cops. That is not a good thing.
Additionally, with less than a dozen people, we don't have enough rhetorical cohesion to keep on the same message, and some of our more extreme partisans may vocalize statements which leave some of us shaking our heads in despair.
Personally I'd rather have the eccentric hollering coming from the other side. Their extremism and spiteful hate can make us look good. Loud crazy bloodlust can be their worst advertising.
A third reason why we should perhaps let the other side's spur-of-the-moment actions slide is that if there are not a lot of people on either side, the SFPD will not be out in force. There are some sonei-Yisroel among the ranks, who at these smaller events tend to throw their blue-garbed weight around, and clearly adhere to a double standard, whereas when there are at least two dozen cops present, there are enough of them who are either neutral or on our side to ensure that the excesses of the pro-Palestine radicals will be dealt with, and the treatment of the pro-Israel side will not be blatantly biased.
Enough senior officers and potential witnesses to ensure a diplomatic even-handedness in any case.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED?
I got there before everyone else, and wondered if I had the right time and place. Our sanest member showed up shortly after, followed by two or three other sane people. Soon we were augmented by two or three Borat, and a few others who were in between balanced and utterly Boratic. By three o'clock we had swollen to a mass of maybe ten people (Borat quotient: 30%).
The anti-Israel side by that time consisted of about twenty-five people milling about before the Federal Building and blocking the entrance, where they proceeded to unfurl banners and speechify.
We went over and stood next to them.
At this point, Boratic slogans were shouted, and their camera-toters swung into action. One young lady, possessed of both arrogant self-righteousness and impressive brazenness, came and took close-up photos of all of us. Some of the other photographers on their side were more particular about taking pictures of us from a few yards away, though clearly not because of any sense of bashfulness or good taste; one of them hissed at one of our members that he would be put on a death list.
We also took a number of pictures of them, even following the young lady with the impressive brazenness around and trying to get a picture of her face...... hard to do, because she really did not want to be photographed.
[Other than that repulsive smirking sneer on her face, she really was well worth photographing. But man, that brazenness! Impressive! Kudos, bitch, kudos!]
By three-thirty the police showed up, and insisted that both groups get off the plaza and onto the public sidewalk. It became apparent that the men in blue were more concerned about riling up the pro-Pals than about offending our sensibilities - the numbers and cameras may have had something to do with that, as well as the lack of diplomacy of our various Borat.
[We really have to be more in charge of our several Borat - they go off half-cocked at times.]
Both groups continued their respective actions on the sidewalk in front of the building, under orders from the police to keep to their assigned areas. Which, effectively, gave the advantage to the sonei-Yisroel. And while some of the police were polite, friendly and extremely reasonable, they were eventually joined by one officer who every time he passed by our group barked that we should not block the sidewalk. When we pointed out that the other side was allowed to block their entire corner, he snapped that they weren't blocking the sidewalk, we were.
[The other officers chilled somewhat towards us after his arrival. Group solidarity or something. It did not help that two or three of our Borat made snide remarks about double-standards and attempts to push Jews back into the Ghettoes. While those may have been the operative principles, most policemen will not break down and say 'sorry' when confronted with 'attitude', and many of them probably do not automatically think of the Jewish context of the word 'ghetto'.]
By four thirty we decided to "declare victory and go home". Sang Hatikvah, sounded the shofar, furled our banners and packed our signs, and headed off.
As I explained to a friend who was there, our task is merely to irritate the other side by our presence, and make sure that we are visible - no actual dialogue takes place, no minds are changed, no worthwhile rhetorical battles won. Especially if there is no news media present.
This will not be in the paper, though it may show up on the usual Israel-hating websites.
Probably just as well. The local news media do not report these events accurately and tend to blandly blather about both sides making their point blah blah blah. Even when the other side is screaming for the death of Jews, the Chronicle will at best merely state that passions were evident, while the ten o'clock news will show a reporter saying something inane against a background of inoffensive milling about in the distance and Frank Chiu maneuvring his twelve galaxies sign into camera range in mid-view.
----------------------------------------
Final note I: "Al mawt al Hezbullah, al mawt al Hamas", while being excellent slogans, are largely useless, as many of the Bay Area Israel haters do not speak Arabic, even if some of them have parents who do.
[Translation: "Death to Hezbullah, death to Hamas". I must thank Sheikh Nasrallah and his folks for the pattern of those slogans - if it weren't for video of his Shiites screaming similar stuff in Beirut last summer, I would not have thought to construct these phrases. My Arabic is not good enough to do more than hijack their rhetoric.]
Final note II: The area around the Federal Building has few pedestrians, and is a ghastly wind-tunnel besides. If we do any more of these 'one-day forewarning' actions, let's only do it if the bastards are going to be in front of the consulate or at Montgomery Street Bart Station. That way more of us can show up, and we can effectively hand out our flyers and engage passers-by in discussion, even if there are the usual Israel-hating ultra-left bigots among the pedestrians. The IHULBs tend to be less loud in their hate when there are more people around.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Monday, June 04, 2007
COCKROACHES PLANNING ANTI-ISRAEL ACTION TOMORROW
URGENT ACTION ALERT
Counter Anti-Israel RallyTuesday, June 5
2:45 PM-6PM
Meet on the corner of Larkin and Golden Gate in Downtown San Francisco
Counter what will be a large anti-Israel demonstration organized by Al Awda, ISM, MECA, Stanford Students Confronting Apartheid and other such anti-Israel groups, tomorrow at 3 pm at the Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco.
The message of the anti-Israel rally is built on the theme "40/60" meaning 40 years of "occupation" of the West Bank and 60 years of "7 million Palestinian refugees (in) exile."
The rally will support the Palestinian "right to return to their homes and repossess their properties."
In other words, conquer Israel and bring about Israel's destruction.
The rally is also targeting US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her support for Israel and to oppose a bill by US Rep. Tom Lantos that congratulates Israel on its victory in the defensive 6-Day War of 1967. The demonstrators mischaracterize the bill as a congratulating “40 years of Occupation!”
WE WILL MEET ON THE CORNER OF LARKIN AND GOLDEN GATE AT 2:45.
OUR MESSAGE: is not support for the "occupation" but rather
* demanding that the Palestinians make peace with Israel to end the conflict.
* We stand up for Israel against the demonizations, deligitimizations, and double standards applied to the Jewish state.
* We thank Congresspeople such as Pelosi and Lantos for their continuing strong support of the US-Israel friendship and alliance.
As always, feel free to make your own signs but please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians. Signs in violation of our policies will not be allowed.
StandWithUs/San Francisco Voice for Israel
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs.com
------------------------------------------------------
Note: Do not forget to bring a jacket, as the Civic Center Area can get windy and chilly in late afternoon.
Counter Anti-Israel RallyTuesday, June 5
2:45 PM-6PM
Meet on the corner of Larkin and Golden Gate in Downtown San Francisco
Counter what will be a large anti-Israel demonstration organized by Al Awda, ISM, MECA, Stanford Students Confronting Apartheid and other such anti-Israel groups, tomorrow at 3 pm at the Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco.
The message of the anti-Israel rally is built on the theme "40/60" meaning 40 years of "occupation" of the West Bank and 60 years of "7 million Palestinian refugees (in) exile."
The rally will support the Palestinian "right to return to their homes and repossess their properties."
In other words, conquer Israel and bring about Israel's destruction.
The rally is also targeting US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her support for Israel and to oppose a bill by US Rep. Tom Lantos that congratulates Israel on its victory in the defensive 6-Day War of 1967. The demonstrators mischaracterize the bill as a congratulating “40 years of Occupation!”
WE WILL MEET ON THE CORNER OF LARKIN AND GOLDEN GATE AT 2:45.
OUR MESSAGE: is not support for the "occupation" but rather
* demanding that the Palestinians make peace with Israel to end the conflict.
* We stand up for Israel against the demonizations, deligitimizations, and double standards applied to the Jewish state.
* We thank Congresspeople such as Pelosi and Lantos for their continuing strong support of the US-Israel friendship and alliance.
As always, feel free to make your own signs but please no signs or graphics offensive to any racial or ethnic group including but not limited to Arabs, Islam, or Palestinians. Signs in violation of our policies will not be allowed.
StandWithUs/San Francisco Voice for Israel
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs.com
------------------------------------------------------
Note: Do not forget to bring a jacket, as the Civic Center Area can get windy and chilly in late afternoon.
ISRAEL IN THE GARDENS RECAP 06/04/2007
Two hours of symbolic stand-off with the sonei-Yisroel, half a day of loud music, some street theatre, a spinach and cheese pirogy, a vegetable boreka. Plus a mediocre caffeinated beverage.
No event is complete without a Russian screaming something unintelligible in English, and no fair is perfect without a new book (another translation of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch).
THE ENEMY AT THE GATES
We had been told that JVP would not be allowed into the event, nor would they be allowed to use the sidewalk in front, because in previous years attendees had been taunted and threatened by anti-Israel activists at similar events. The SFPD and event-organizers, we were informed, were determined to limit the anti-Israel protests to the other side of the street.
Determined, perhaps.
But too darn wussy to do anything about it.
SFPD and event-staff did squat-all when JVP-protestors lined the entrance and formed an obnoxious gauntlet for attendees. One of their organizers had had a discussion with one of SF’s finest shortly before they arrived, and it was soon evident that the SFPD looked upon the JVP with considerably more kindliness than they regarded SF For Israel. That particular officer even threatened to charge one of our sanest members with assault and arrest her, because her flag was either frightening one of the Jayveepee-folk or had actually touched one of them. Throughout the counter-protest the other side evinced paranoia about the flags. It was a constant - I’m afraid several of our flags actually did touch the Jayveepeeleite, and we may have to have them dry-cleaned.
The police did not bother or interfere with the JVP, but in order to not get arrested SF For Israel had to keep marching back and forth.
[The Unaffiliated Rogue Element (Anarcho-Zionist) did not march, but stood sullenly opposite some harpies. We don't take orders, and we do whatever we darn well please. Glowering was what we pleased.]
THE ENEMY WITHIN THE GATES
Later we discovered that Brit Tzedek ve Shalom was disseminating JVP literature at their booth.
The head-honcho of Brit Tzedek is the former president of JVP and Brit Tzedek jointly organized a program with JVP at least once, with Bay Area Women in Black at least twice. The same individual is the founder of BAWIB and a signatory of the petition for the Palestinian Right of Return. Yet the pretense which everyone is buying into is that Brit Tzedek has nothing to do with JVP, and that BAWIB is equally independent and unaffiliated.
Their assertion of differentiation is beginning to look somewhat like multiple personality disorder. Disingenuous and dysfunctional in any case.
Given that the event-organizers seemed to want to be utterly non-confrontational, and that rigidly timid neutrality seems to be a dominant ideology among the more mainstream and establishment elements, I think there is scope for pushing back much harder in the future – they cave in so easily.
Next time, we should definitely have the bullhorns with us on the line, if for no other reason than to threaten to use them. It will give the anti-Zionists something else to worry about besides catching cooties from Israeli flags.
------------------------------------
On a different note: one of the members of the Unaffiliated Rogue Element (Anarcho-Zionist) had a lengthy conversation with an elderly gentleman about the four questions.
[No, not those four questions. These four questions: "Where's my wife? When is she getting here? When do we sit? Where do we sit?" ]
His wife had dropped him off in front of me, then went to park the car. Either he was focusing single-mindedly on the ideal answers to the questions, or he had a short-term memory issue. But he was very pleasant about it, so it did not actually seem like the longest forty-five minutes of my entire life.
No event is complete without a Russian screaming something unintelligible in English, and no fair is perfect without a new book (another translation of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch).
THE ENEMY AT THE GATES
We had been told that JVP would not be allowed into the event, nor would they be allowed to use the sidewalk in front, because in previous years attendees had been taunted and threatened by anti-Israel activists at similar events. The SFPD and event-organizers, we were informed, were determined to limit the anti-Israel protests to the other side of the street.
Determined, perhaps.
But too darn wussy to do anything about it.
SFPD and event-staff did squat-all when JVP-protestors lined the entrance and formed an obnoxious gauntlet for attendees. One of their organizers had had a discussion with one of SF’s finest shortly before they arrived, and it was soon evident that the SFPD looked upon the JVP with considerably more kindliness than they regarded SF For Israel. That particular officer even threatened to charge one of our sanest members with assault and arrest her, because her flag was either frightening one of the Jayveepee-folk or had actually touched one of them. Throughout the counter-protest the other side evinced paranoia about the flags. It was a constant - I’m afraid several of our flags actually did touch the Jayveepeeleite, and we may have to have them dry-cleaned.
The police did not bother or interfere with the JVP, but in order to not get arrested SF For Israel had to keep marching back and forth.
[The Unaffiliated Rogue Element (Anarcho-Zionist) did not march, but stood sullenly opposite some harpies. We don't take orders, and we do whatever we darn well please. Glowering was what we pleased.]
THE ENEMY WITHIN THE GATES
Later we discovered that Brit Tzedek ve Shalom was disseminating JVP literature at their booth.
The head-honcho of Brit Tzedek is the former president of JVP and Brit Tzedek jointly organized a program with JVP at least once, with Bay Area Women in Black at least twice. The same individual is the founder of BAWIB and a signatory of the petition for the Palestinian Right of Return. Yet the pretense which everyone is buying into is that Brit Tzedek has nothing to do with JVP, and that BAWIB is equally independent and unaffiliated.
Their assertion of differentiation is beginning to look somewhat like multiple personality disorder. Disingenuous and dysfunctional in any case.
Given that the event-organizers seemed to want to be utterly non-confrontational, and that rigidly timid neutrality seems to be a dominant ideology among the more mainstream and establishment elements, I think there is scope for pushing back much harder in the future – they cave in so easily.
Next time, we should definitely have the bullhorns with us on the line, if for no other reason than to threaten to use them. It will give the anti-Zionists something else to worry about besides catching cooties from Israeli flags.
------------------------------------
On a different note: one of the members of the Unaffiliated Rogue Element (Anarcho-Zionist) had a lengthy conversation with an elderly gentleman about the four questions.
[No, not those four questions. These four questions: "Where's my wife? When is she getting here? When do we sit? Where do we sit?" ]
His wife had dropped him off in front of me, then went to park the car. Either he was focusing single-mindedly on the ideal answers to the questions, or he had a short-term memory issue. But he was very pleasant about it, so it did not actually seem like the longest forty-five minutes of my entire life.
Friday, June 01, 2007
GENEVA SYNAGOGUE FIRE WAS ARSON
Sources: Reuters and Ha'aretz.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/865949.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0150154.htm
The fire that destroyed Hechal HaNess synagogue in Geneva on May 24th was caused by arson, according to investigating magistrate Michel Graber.
There are as yet no suspects.
But there is plenty of wild speculation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/865949.html
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L0150154.htm
The fire that destroyed Hechal HaNess synagogue in Geneva on May 24th was caused by arson, according to investigating magistrate Michel Graber.
There are as yet no suspects.
But there is plenty of wild speculation.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
EMPTYING TRASH CANS AND SCREAMING OBSCENITIES
There has been firm pressure to step-down and take a backseat this Sunday as regards the actions of the local soneiYisroel.
Our friend 'Amar' had this reaction:
I was downtown (observing) the night of the massive anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco. I think it was March 2003. I did not know what to think of the pending war, and I was curious to get the perspective of the anti-war folks.
The police permitted small groups of "demonstrators", sometimes just one "demonstrator", to stand in front of a line of cars for a long time, tieing up that line of cars un-necessarily. One "demonstrator" was letting small cars though faster, but SUV sat for a long time. Of course small cars behind the SUV were suffering just as the SUV driver suffered. This was happening all over Market street and nearby streets. There were numerous police on foot and in police cars parked, thinking all this was just fine.
Other "demonstrators" were emptying trash cans in the streets, doing various acts of vandalism.
Again, this is fine with the police.
I spent some time asking various "demonstrators" what would they propose as an alternative to deposing the Iraqi dictator. I could not find anyone that had even thought about it.
These folks that I observed and spoke to were not demonstrators at all, they were young people having fun. The police thought it was just fine.
The San Francisco police are so lame that they are more deeply frightening to me than police that are overly aggressive in policing.
So, as far as I can tell - and the JVP folks might not know this - they could get away with anything, including verbally assaulting attendees at close range, and the SF police would do nothing. At least that's on my experience. I hope I'm wrong.
-----------------------------------------------------
A dark assessment, but it is largely justified.
The police will probably intervene before any actual violence happens.
But threatening and cursing the attendees and their children will be considered free speech.
As long as nothing actually gets thrown...... while there is anybody watching.
Just grimace and bear it.
I fully expect some of the anti-Israel crowd to scream obscenities and epithets this Sunday.
The good news is that there will be plenty of witnesses.
I'll be happy to translate certain Arabic phrases for people who have never heard them before, and explain that these exact phrases were screamed by angry mobs in front of the consulate or in Civic center in the last few years, just as they were in 1929 in Hebron, Tel Aviv, Tzfas, and Jerusalem.
Who knows, it might get their danders up.
Eternal hope-springing, dontcha' know.
Our friend 'Amar' had this reaction:
I was downtown (observing) the night of the massive anti-war demonstrations in San Francisco. I think it was March 2003. I did not know what to think of the pending war, and I was curious to get the perspective of the anti-war folks.
The police permitted small groups of "demonstrators", sometimes just one "demonstrator", to stand in front of a line of cars for a long time, tieing up that line of cars un-necessarily. One "demonstrator" was letting small cars though faster, but SUV sat for a long time. Of course small cars behind the SUV were suffering just as the SUV driver suffered. This was happening all over Market street and nearby streets. There were numerous police on foot and in police cars parked, thinking all this was just fine.
Other "demonstrators" were emptying trash cans in the streets, doing various acts of vandalism.
Again, this is fine with the police.
I spent some time asking various "demonstrators" what would they propose as an alternative to deposing the Iraqi dictator. I could not find anyone that had even thought about it.
These folks that I observed and spoke to were not demonstrators at all, they were young people having fun. The police thought it was just fine.
The San Francisco police are so lame that they are more deeply frightening to me than police that are overly aggressive in policing.
So, as far as I can tell - and the JVP folks might not know this - they could get away with anything, including verbally assaulting attendees at close range, and the SF police would do nothing. At least that's on my experience. I hope I'm wrong.
-----------------------------------------------------
A dark assessment, but it is largely justified.
The police will probably intervene before any actual violence happens.
But threatening and cursing the attendees and their children will be considered free speech.
As long as nothing actually gets thrown...... while there is anybody watching.
Just grimace and bear it.
I fully expect some of the anti-Israel crowd to scream obscenities and epithets this Sunday.
The good news is that there will be plenty of witnesses.
I'll be happy to translate certain Arabic phrases for people who have never heard them before, and explain that these exact phrases were screamed by angry mobs in front of the consulate or in Civic center in the last few years, just as they were in 1929 in Hebron, Tel Aviv, Tzfas, and Jerusalem.
Who knows, it might get their danders up.
Eternal hope-springing, dontcha' know.
RANTING, RANTING, RANTING
Treppenwitz has an excellent rant about the Quartet.
See here:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/05/um_guys_i_was_k.html#comment-71230022
[Treppenwitz's blog: http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/ ]
Well, that reminded me of some of my own humble spleen. As indeed it could not but.
Like this:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/10/good-rant.html
In which I spew about the roadmap, the quartet, and the alleged importance of the Temple Mount to that other religion (you know, the 'derech achra').
And persuant the issue of Jerusalem, please also look here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/07/israel-and-jerusalem-facts.html
Some germane data about Jerusalem. You might want to copy it for future reference.
And then there's an opinion-piece by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/07/not-un-by-r-jeremy-rosen.html
Though it is specific to the Lebanon mess, it also says some extremely pertinent things about the United Nations.
Feel free to tell me how much you disagree with any and all of this. I welcome your comments. Really I do.
See here:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/05/um_guys_i_was_k.html#comment-71230022
[Treppenwitz's blog: http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/ ]
Well, that reminded me of some of my own humble spleen. As indeed it could not but.
Like this:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/10/good-rant.html
In which I spew about the roadmap, the quartet, and the alleged importance of the Temple Mount to that other religion (you know, the 'derech achra').
And persuant the issue of Jerusalem, please also look here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/07/israel-and-jerusalem-facts.html
Some germane data about Jerusalem. You might want to copy it for future reference.
And then there's an opinion-piece by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2006/07/not-un-by-r-jeremy-rosen.html
Though it is specific to the Lebanon mess, it also says some extremely pertinent things about the United Nations.
Feel free to tell me how much you disagree with any and all of this. I welcome your comments. Really I do.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
ISRAEL IN THE GARDENS - SUNDAY JUNE 3, 2007
The organizers of this Sunday's event want everyone to F*^&%#g-well behave!
They have sent out a document which they demand we sign, stating "all organizations participating in the day are expected to cooperate fully with the organizers of the day regarding any decisions or requests that are made for the overall safety and welfare of all participants. This includes the expectation that organizations will not engage in any confrontational behavior with any other organization present at the festival or the perimeter of the festival, and that organizations will respond to any requests made by Israel in the Gardens staff intended to ensure the overall safety and enjoyment of those in attendance."
I understand this to mean that not only do the organizers of Israel in the Gardens NOT intend to prevent JVP from setting up there, they also intend to prevent any type of response.
Typical behaviour of the Political Jews - don't make waves, don't confront, don't insult the nice German in the snappy uniform.
This is especially amusing when you consider the following message from the Bay Area Women In Black:
"We enclose an announcement from Jewish Voice for Peace who are planning a silent vigil on Sunday June 3rd outside the Israel in the Park celebration. BAWIB is not participating this year but encourage of those of you who want to register their dissent of an uncritical celebration at a time of catastrophe for Palestinian people, to join them."
As one of my friends puts it: "the Political Jews always try to ignore the protestors and always get burned. They don't learn."
An accurate assessment, as we saw most recently when Carter came to Berkeley.
Let's review previous events at 'Israel In The Gardens':
1. International Answer, screaming obscenities.
2. Women in black.
3. Nazis.
4. Rabbi Lerner's Tikkun fellowship.
5. Jewish Voice for Peace.
6. Jayferjay: Jayzus luvs ya!
It does not look like it will be any less confrontational this year. Even if we do not confront.
I will bring a can of raid. At least visually, I will be likening the other side to cockroaches.
I can understand why our group is a little tired of Political Jews and Quislings.
While for obvious reasons I cannot quite agree with the concept of entirely ignoring the Goyim, I am even less attracted to the phrase 'mah yomru ha Goyim'. Sometimes one just has to say 'bugger ha Goyim'.
Even if some of the Goyim claim to be Jews.
I'll leave it to you to figure out whether I mean the 'Political Jews' who prefer to do nothing except quietly lay low and not piss off the Gentiles, or the Jew-hating-Jews in JVP, BAWIB, and Tikkun.
They have sent out a document which they demand we sign, stating "all organizations participating in the day are expected to cooperate fully with the organizers of the day regarding any decisions or requests that are made for the overall safety and welfare of all participants. This includes the expectation that organizations will not engage in any confrontational behavior with any other organization present at the festival or the perimeter of the festival, and that organizations will respond to any requests made by Israel in the Gardens staff intended to ensure the overall safety and enjoyment of those in attendance."
I understand this to mean that not only do the organizers of Israel in the Gardens NOT intend to prevent JVP from setting up there, they also intend to prevent any type of response.
Typical behaviour of the Political Jews - don't make waves, don't confront, don't insult the nice German in the snappy uniform.
This is especially amusing when you consider the following message from the Bay Area Women In Black:
"We enclose an announcement from Jewish Voice for Peace who are planning a silent vigil on Sunday June 3rd outside the Israel in the Park celebration. BAWIB is not participating this year but encourage of those of you who want to register their dissent of an uncritical celebration at a time of catastrophe for Palestinian people, to join them."
As one of my friends puts it: "the Political Jews always try to ignore the protestors and always get burned. They don't learn."
An accurate assessment, as we saw most recently when Carter came to Berkeley.
Let's review previous events at 'Israel In The Gardens':
1. International Answer, screaming obscenities.
2. Women in black.
3. Nazis.
4. Rabbi Lerner's Tikkun fellowship.
5. Jewish Voice for Peace.
6. Jayferjay: Jayzus luvs ya!
It does not look like it will be any less confrontational this year. Even if we do not confront.
I will bring a can of raid. At least visually, I will be likening the other side to cockroaches.
I can understand why our group is a little tired of Political Jews and Quislings.
While for obvious reasons I cannot quite agree with the concept of entirely ignoring the Goyim, I am even less attracted to the phrase 'mah yomru ha Goyim'. Sometimes one just has to say 'bugger ha Goyim'.
Even if some of the Goyim claim to be Jews.
I'll leave it to you to figure out whether I mean the 'Political Jews' who prefer to do nothing except quietly lay low and not piss off the Gentiles, or the Jew-hating-Jews in JVP, BAWIB, and Tikkun.
GUEST-POST: HOLLAND, WWII, AND COFFINS
In a previous posting (see here: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2007/05/dutch-bigotry-moslim-gezin-wil-snel-weg.html ) I said a number of less than flattering things about the Dutch and their country.
One of my occassional readers had a number of things to say which illuminate another side - a side which, though I do not see entirely eye-to-eye with him, is nevertheless both valid and worthwhile.
He has graciously extended permission to post his letter, which I do below.
=================================
Well now, BOTH,
Your problems at school don’t surprise me, not because of you being American or Jewish, but you lived in he middle of Catholic country and would have had the same trouble if you had been just Protestant, that’s the way it was written in places where most of the people go to church and go to the same church.
As for your friends in Dirksland Goeree-Overflakkee, it is downright stupid to go and live there if you belong to a visible minority, again if most people there go to church, and to the same church. Better find a larger community with more people of your background, there you don’t stand out and won’t attract attention of the zealots.
You can’t change human nature, BOTH.
But you can squawk about it, and you do that very well☺
I grew up in Holland and went to a public school, we had kids with Indonesian parents, kids with German parents, and a girl with Polish parents in our class, and I actually only now become aware of that, and that’s your fault BOTH.☺
Had I gone next door to the Christian school things would have been different, of course you don’t go there unless you are Christian.
After what happened in Poland in 1939 it was utterly stupid of the Dutch government to try to defend the country against the German onslaught, a waste of young lives.
I was on the Grebbeberg in Rhenen in 1940 right after the fighting stopped and I will not forget seeing the still open mass graves nor the smell of desinfectants. I also helped making the 8 coffins for the BS. men that were ordered to attack a German wagon train (1945) with nothing but revolvers. I saw them and remember that they were all shot in the head. The BS. Binnenlandse strijdkrachten caused a lot of trouble for the civil population whenever the Germans ordered them out of their houses in the middle of the night to sweep the roadways clean of nails and cut over trees. They did do a good job robbing the distribution centers for ration tickets, a lot of Dutch Jewish survivors thank their lives on those efforts.
I think that your impression of strong anti-American feelings in Holland is mostly imagination. I haven’t been in Holland for 35 years but still I think that the general opinion there is that in spite of the very large contributions of the Brits and the Canadians, the second world war would not have been won without the might an resources of the U.S.A. without them Europe would be speaking German, and Asia Japanese. They won’t forget.
-----A. M.
=================================
The reader, doing the math, will realize that A. M. is probably nearing eighty years old, and was last in the Netherlands when Nixon was still the American president. As such, he represents a generation which was quite different from the current one - over there as much as here. Those were different times. The people who came through WWII were different people.
Europe and America have never been closer than they were then.
One of my occassional readers had a number of things to say which illuminate another side - a side which, though I do not see entirely eye-to-eye with him, is nevertheless both valid and worthwhile.
He has graciously extended permission to post his letter, which I do below.
=================================
Well now, BOTH,
Your problems at school don’t surprise me, not because of you being American or Jewish, but you lived in he middle of Catholic country and would have had the same trouble if you had been just Protestant, that’s the way it was written in places where most of the people go to church and go to the same church.
As for your friends in Dirksland Goeree-Overflakkee, it is downright stupid to go and live there if you belong to a visible minority, again if most people there go to church, and to the same church. Better find a larger community with more people of your background, there you don’t stand out and won’t attract attention of the zealots.
You can’t change human nature, BOTH.
But you can squawk about it, and you do that very well☺
I grew up in Holland and went to a public school, we had kids with Indonesian parents, kids with German parents, and a girl with Polish parents in our class, and I actually only now become aware of that, and that’s your fault BOTH.☺
Had I gone next door to the Christian school things would have been different, of course you don’t go there unless you are Christian.
After what happened in Poland in 1939 it was utterly stupid of the Dutch government to try to defend the country against the German onslaught, a waste of young lives.
I was on the Grebbeberg in Rhenen in 1940 right after the fighting stopped and I will not forget seeing the still open mass graves nor the smell of desinfectants. I also helped making the 8 coffins for the BS. men that were ordered to attack a German wagon train (1945) with nothing but revolvers. I saw them and remember that they were all shot in the head. The BS. Binnenlandse strijdkrachten caused a lot of trouble for the civil population whenever the Germans ordered them out of their houses in the middle of the night to sweep the roadways clean of nails and cut over trees. They did do a good job robbing the distribution centers for ration tickets, a lot of Dutch Jewish survivors thank their lives on those efforts.
I think that your impression of strong anti-American feelings in Holland is mostly imagination. I haven’t been in Holland for 35 years but still I think that the general opinion there is that in spite of the very large contributions of the Brits and the Canadians, the second world war would not have been won without the might an resources of the U.S.A. without them Europe would be speaking German, and Asia Japanese. They won’t forget.
-----A. M.
=================================
The reader, doing the math, will realize that A. M. is probably nearing eighty years old, and was last in the Netherlands when Nixon was still the American president. As such, he represents a generation which was quite different from the current one - over there as much as here. Those were different times. The people who came through WWII were different people.
Europe and America have never been closer than they were then.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
DUTCH BIGOTRY [" MOSLIM GEZIN WIL SNEL WEG "]
A Lebanese refugee family in a Dutch town claims that the neighborhood is terrorizing them.
See this article (in Dutch): http://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/voorneputten/article1394650.ece
Khalil El Maoula has moved his wife and five children to a safe place, and himself sleeps in his car. He moved to the Netherlands fourteen years ago to escape violence, and has lived in the Melissant neighborhood of Dirksland (on the Island of Goeree-Overflakkee in Zeeland province) for eight years.
In recent times he has been harassed, and eggs have been thrown at his windows nightly.
Some neighbors say that the problem is the Lebanese family's own fault, and that Khalil starts fights. They also claim that the local police are not willing to step in lest they be accused of discrimination, and are consequently too timid to do anything about the family's aggression and quarrelsomeness.
Khalil claims that people in the neighborhood have made threats and yelled anti-Islamic slurs.
Now, before I say anything else, let me point out two pertinent facts:
1. I am not particularly favourably inclined towards Muslims in general, nor to Arabs.
While I do count a number of Arabs among my friends and acquaintances, and enjoy their company and rhetorical hyperbole, the Arab world on the whole very successfully manages to get my goat, big time.
2. I lived in the Netherlands for sixteen years, and while I speak, read, and write Dutch fluently, and do not look particularly foreign (it would be odd if I did not look like a native - the family tree is sodden with Dutch genetic material since some of my ancestors settled in New York in the Seventeenth century), I was never allowed to forget that I was not Dutch, and as a resident foreigner I should be humble, and grateful for any consideration. Many Dutch at that time were strongly anti-American, and whenever WWII was brought up they would stress that they had been liberated by Canadians (conveniently overlooking the role that the US played in the war and the American Military Graveyard in Margraten), and would proudly insist that the Dutch had fought the Germans and protected Jews (forgetting for the moment that they surrendered in mere days, may have had the largest collaborationist movement of any occupied country as a percentage of the population, and that hundreds of thousands of Dutchmen were very well paid by the Germans for betraying Dutch Jews, more than eighty percent of whom did not survive the consideration of their fellow countrymen).
It is that second point that I particularly wish to impress upon your attention. I know what shits some Dutch can be. I lived among them for sixteen years. I was beaten up several times for being American. I was told innumerable times that as a Yankee I was lower than dirt. I got bricks through my bedroom window. The local yobbos pissed against our door, graffitoed our house, and threatened my parents.
[It is to my mother's credit that she threatened them right back - and they were scared of her. Four feet eleven inches of pugnacious rheumatism and cancer. But steady hands, steely eyes, and a toughness that frightened even priests and policemen. Always be gratefull for the women in your life.]
No, it wasn't the majority that attempted to make our lives miserable. It was indeed a minority. The majority of our neighbors in Valkenswaard, of our "friends" and acquaintances in that town, of our classmates and teachers in the Openbare Lagere School and the Hertog Jan College - these were on the whole decent people. But they did nothing to discourage the rotten few who acted up.
[The local constabulary were fairly useless - after all, they had to live with those people too, and Dutch red-tape discourages all but the most masochistic of civil servants from ever opening their eyes.]
I remember several people in that town with loathing - especially the brutish little Cro-magnons in the local boy-scouts who additionally despised me because I was not Catholic, and several local parents who feared that I would infect their little darlings with unclean and heathenish Americanisms.
[Americans are, in the eyes of many Europeans, merely the savage dregs of Europe. One could also regard Europeans as the devolutionary left-overs of several centuries of ritualistic slaughter and internecine warfare, but that would be unkind. Accurate, but unkind.]
Teachers of English at the local high-schools insisted that as Americans it was patently impossible for my brother and myself to speak civilized English, read English with any significant comprehension, or even understand the subtleties of literature in English.
[They nearly flunked me because of imagined Americanisms.]
That, along with the equally adamant arrogance of my father's fellow engineers, who knew as a matter of unassailable fact that their English just had to be better than my father's, because after all they were Europeans, and he was merely an American......
[Never ask a Dutchman to write technical English. The result ranges from unreadable to nightmare-inducing.]
Let's just say that I am of two minds about the Dutch.
I like them, and gladly socialize with them. And I really enjoy a few weeks in Amsterdam every few years, to recharge my Euro-trash batteries and purchase piles of books. Plus herring, cigars, genever - zalig, joh!
But they easily get my bile flowing, though it has been nearly three decades since I lived among them.
So when Khalil El Maoula says that he is being victimized by his Dutch neighbors, I will give him the benefit of doubt. I will believe him. I will think that among his neighbors are some vicious xenophobic bastards, and that the majority of his neighbors are in a state of complete denial about the rottenness that lives in small town Holland.
I've been there.
---------------------------------------
Note to any 'Ollanders who may stumble upon this blog: Yes, I know that I am 'shearing an entire group over one comb', as you lot so charmingly put it, and generalizing unfairly about the Dutch. Tough noogies.
Just try denying that parts of your pissy little mud-country are unfriendly, with many small-minded bigots in small boggy towns - you read your newspapers and know that it is so. You yourself have probably used ethnic slurs, and you yourself are probably in a state of denial about the polarization and negativity that have finally come out into the open in the last five years. Does the name Geert Wilders mean anything to you? How about the term 'kut marokkaan'? Have you EVER objected when one of your friends refered to someone else as a kut-marokkaan, or a koffieboon, or a pinda, or a mof, or even a vuile jenkie?
And for crapssakes, don't start belligerently squawking about everything that is rotten in the US. We already know that, we live here, you utter moron. This isn't about us, but about you. If you disagree, you can always start your own patriotic Dutch-o-philic blog. It ain't that hard...... except, of course, if you cannot understand the technical instructions on Blogger because they are written in...... (wait for it) ...... English!
See this article (in Dutch): http://www.ad.nl/rotterdam/voorneputten/article1394650.ece
Khalil El Maoula has moved his wife and five children to a safe place, and himself sleeps in his car. He moved to the Netherlands fourteen years ago to escape violence, and has lived in the Melissant neighborhood of Dirksland (on the Island of Goeree-Overflakkee in Zeeland province) for eight years.
In recent times he has been harassed, and eggs have been thrown at his windows nightly.
Some neighbors say that the problem is the Lebanese family's own fault, and that Khalil starts fights. They also claim that the local police are not willing to step in lest they be accused of discrimination, and are consequently too timid to do anything about the family's aggression and quarrelsomeness.
Khalil claims that people in the neighborhood have made threats and yelled anti-Islamic slurs.
Now, before I say anything else, let me point out two pertinent facts:
1. I am not particularly favourably inclined towards Muslims in general, nor to Arabs.
While I do count a number of Arabs among my friends and acquaintances, and enjoy their company and rhetorical hyperbole, the Arab world on the whole very successfully manages to get my goat, big time.
2. I lived in the Netherlands for sixteen years, and while I speak, read, and write Dutch fluently, and do not look particularly foreign (it would be odd if I did not look like a native - the family tree is sodden with Dutch genetic material since some of my ancestors settled in New York in the Seventeenth century), I was never allowed to forget that I was not Dutch, and as a resident foreigner I should be humble, and grateful for any consideration. Many Dutch at that time were strongly anti-American, and whenever WWII was brought up they would stress that they had been liberated by Canadians (conveniently overlooking the role that the US played in the war and the American Military Graveyard in Margraten), and would proudly insist that the Dutch had fought the Germans and protected Jews (forgetting for the moment that they surrendered in mere days, may have had the largest collaborationist movement of any occupied country as a percentage of the population, and that hundreds of thousands of Dutchmen were very well paid by the Germans for betraying Dutch Jews, more than eighty percent of whom did not survive the consideration of their fellow countrymen).
It is that second point that I particularly wish to impress upon your attention. I know what shits some Dutch can be. I lived among them for sixteen years. I was beaten up several times for being American. I was told innumerable times that as a Yankee I was lower than dirt. I got bricks through my bedroom window. The local yobbos pissed against our door, graffitoed our house, and threatened my parents.
[It is to my mother's credit that she threatened them right back - and they were scared of her. Four feet eleven inches of pugnacious rheumatism and cancer. But steady hands, steely eyes, and a toughness that frightened even priests and policemen. Always be gratefull for the women in your life.]
No, it wasn't the majority that attempted to make our lives miserable. It was indeed a minority. The majority of our neighbors in Valkenswaard, of our "friends" and acquaintances in that town, of our classmates and teachers in the Openbare Lagere School and the Hertog Jan College - these were on the whole decent people. But they did nothing to discourage the rotten few who acted up.
[The local constabulary were fairly useless - after all, they had to live with those people too, and Dutch red-tape discourages all but the most masochistic of civil servants from ever opening their eyes.]
I remember several people in that town with loathing - especially the brutish little Cro-magnons in the local boy-scouts who additionally despised me because I was not Catholic, and several local parents who feared that I would infect their little darlings with unclean and heathenish Americanisms.
[Americans are, in the eyes of many Europeans, merely the savage dregs of Europe. One could also regard Europeans as the devolutionary left-overs of several centuries of ritualistic slaughter and internecine warfare, but that would be unkind. Accurate, but unkind.]
Teachers of English at the local high-schools insisted that as Americans it was patently impossible for my brother and myself to speak civilized English, read English with any significant comprehension, or even understand the subtleties of literature in English.
[They nearly flunked me because of imagined Americanisms.]
That, along with the equally adamant arrogance of my father's fellow engineers, who knew as a matter of unassailable fact that their English just had to be better than my father's, because after all they were Europeans, and he was merely an American......
[Never ask a Dutchman to write technical English. The result ranges from unreadable to nightmare-inducing.]
Let's just say that I am of two minds about the Dutch.
I like them, and gladly socialize with them. And I really enjoy a few weeks in Amsterdam every few years, to recharge my Euro-trash batteries and purchase piles of books. Plus herring, cigars, genever - zalig, joh!
But they easily get my bile flowing, though it has been nearly three decades since I lived among them.
So when Khalil El Maoula says that he is being victimized by his Dutch neighbors, I will give him the benefit of doubt. I will believe him. I will think that among his neighbors are some vicious xenophobic bastards, and that the majority of his neighbors are in a state of complete denial about the rottenness that lives in small town Holland.
I've been there.
---------------------------------------
Note to any 'Ollanders who may stumble upon this blog: Yes, I know that I am 'shearing an entire group over one comb', as you lot so charmingly put it, and generalizing unfairly about the Dutch. Tough noogies.
Just try denying that parts of your pissy little mud-country are unfriendly, with many small-minded bigots in small boggy towns - you read your newspapers and know that it is so. You yourself have probably used ethnic slurs, and you yourself are probably in a state of denial about the polarization and negativity that have finally come out into the open in the last five years. Does the name Geert Wilders mean anything to you? How about the term 'kut marokkaan'? Have you EVER objected when one of your friends refered to someone else as a kut-marokkaan, or a koffieboon, or a pinda, or a mof, or even a vuile jenkie?
And for crapssakes, don't start belligerently squawking about everything that is rotten in the US. We already know that, we live here, you utter moron. This isn't about us, but about you. If you disagree, you can always start your own patriotic Dutch-o-philic blog. It ain't that hard...... except, of course, if you cannot understand the technical instructions on Blogger because they are written in...... (wait for it) ...... English!
SWISS SYNAGOGUE FIRE
A fire destroyed the Sephardic synagogue Hechal HaNess in Geneva early this (Thursday) morning.
Community spokesmen have so far indicated that they think it likely that a short-circuit caused the blaze, but there is a slight possibility that it may have been set deliberately.Quote from the Swiss Jewish community electronic news letter: "Die Polizei fokussiert immer noch zwei mögliche Hauptszenarien: kriminellen Akt oder Kurzschluss" (the police are still focusing on two possible primary scenarios: criminal act or short-circuit).
The synagogue is said to be ruined entirely.
Investigation continues.
Community spokesmen have so far indicated that they think it likely that a short-circuit caused the blaze, but there is a slight possibility that it may have been set deliberately.Quote from the Swiss Jewish community electronic news letter: "Die Polizei fokussiert immer noch zwei mögliche Hauptszenarien: kriminellen Akt oder Kurzschluss" (the police are still focusing on two possible primary scenarios: criminal act or short-circuit).
The synagogue is said to be ruined entirely.
Investigation continues.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
CHAG HA BLINTZIM
So you've just cruised through the entire bloggosphere and discovered that I'm the only one who posted anything today.
And you wonder how that is.
Simple.
Everyone else was up all night snarfing cheesecake in celebration of kabolos haTorah.
I, on the other hand, have a significant other.
Who is better than any darn cheesecake.
[Well, not exactly. But you know. Sometimes it's time for cheesecake, sometimes it isn't. And when it's time for cheesecake, it's time for cheesecake.]
In consequence, I had a good night's sleep, whereas everyone else is now flaked out, zonked, and in their disturbed dreams realizing that they are lactose intolerant. Severely. They already knew that, and they still remember what happened last year, but the spasms and cramps are really, really bringing that realization home this time.
Abdominal tumult interrupts their fitful sleep, borborygme punctuate their restless shifting. Sweat furrows their tired brow, as painful twitches and periodic lysis bring a scant modicum of relief.
You do not want to be around them now. It is more frightful than feeding time in the monkey house. Stuff is flying.
They will remain, fevered, in Morpheus' embrace until just about tea-time. Then their bleary eyes will open; they will wipe the accumulated crust from the corners of their lids, swing a leg over the side of the bed, and yawn. Like bears waking from hibernation, they will wash nagel vasser (or knock over the bowl), mumble modeh ani lifaneicha Melech Chai ve Kayam to themselves........
Oh heck. This would be a neener neener neener situation, except that I'm actually rather jealous. You see, THEY had cheesecake.
So it's kinda sour-grapish instead.
Belated chag sameach, y'all.
And you wonder how that is.
Simple.
Everyone else was up all night snarfing cheesecake in celebration of kabolos haTorah.
I, on the other hand, have a significant other.
Who is better than any darn cheesecake.
[Well, not exactly. But you know. Sometimes it's time for cheesecake, sometimes it isn't. And when it's time for cheesecake, it's time for cheesecake.]
In consequence, I had a good night's sleep, whereas everyone else is now flaked out, zonked, and in their disturbed dreams realizing that they are lactose intolerant. Severely. They already knew that, and they still remember what happened last year, but the spasms and cramps are really, really bringing that realization home this time.
Abdominal tumult interrupts their fitful sleep, borborygme punctuate their restless shifting. Sweat furrows their tired brow, as painful twitches and periodic lysis bring a scant modicum of relief.
You do not want to be around them now. It is more frightful than feeding time in the monkey house. Stuff is flying.
They will remain, fevered, in Morpheus' embrace until just about tea-time. Then their bleary eyes will open; they will wipe the accumulated crust from the corners of their lids, swing a leg over the side of the bed, and yawn. Like bears waking from hibernation, they will wash nagel vasser (or knock over the bowl), mumble modeh ani lifaneicha Melech Chai ve Kayam to themselves........
Oh heck. This would be a neener neener neener situation, except that I'm actually rather jealous. You see, THEY had cheesecake.
So it's kinda sour-grapish instead.
Belated chag sameach, y'all.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
TREPPENWITZ FEELIN' MIGHTY.....
Ain't gonna mention anything about beans, or onions, or metamucil, or chocolate flavoured whatevertheheckthose things are. Nope.
This is a CLEAN post.
Just click here:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/05/warning_tmi.html
Make sure to leave a note of commiseration.
Wish him well.
Feel his pain.
Feel his pain!
And imagine having to drive from Be'er Sheva to Efrat with that going on, too.
This is a CLEAN post.
Just click here:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/05/warning_tmi.html
Make sure to leave a note of commiseration.
Wish him well.
Feel his pain.
Feel his pain!
And imagine having to drive from Be'er Sheva to Efrat with that going on, too.
GROUP EAT
The Finance Department will be going out for lunch some time next week, in order to celebrate new additions to the department, birthdays and anniversaries, and coming through the audit with flying colours.
There is something almost sacramental about eating with others. In many cultures, if you are asked to have a bite with someone it is a rudeness to refuse. In Tamarao we say that when you are asked, accept with alacrity. This is especially important when it comes to festive meals and celebratory events. You absolutely must eat, even if only a little bit. You are sharing in the joy of the occasion, and adding to the event by sharing in it.
Think of it as a cultural or social mitzvah.
So I will gladly be part of the happy meal.
We'll probably go to a Hunanese restaurant just south of Market Street. It is a well-known place, much loved by many who work in the downtown.
---------
HUNANESE FOOD
The problem with Hunanese food is that it is the perfect cuisine for Cantonese restaurateurs who know that they are mediocre cooks, and do not wish to have their own countrymen lambast them for serving muck. Cantonese customers who feel that the food is sub-par will be vocal, and vociferous. Even unpleasant. Perhaps lyrical. Eloquent in any case. And very hard to shut up.
[Calling yourself a Hunanese Restaurant warns the Cantonese to go elsewhere. They know.]
White folks, on the other hand, will eat anything.
Just stirfry it with chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage, and call it Hunanese. Add dried chilies to the pan beforehand, and something condimental with cornstarch water for a velvety wok-glaze near the end.
General Bong's Pork?
---Sliced pork stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Farfara pepper and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Duke Mou's Chicken?
---Sliced chicken breast stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Soy sauce and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Black Bean Sauce Beef?
---Sliced beef stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Coarsely mashed salted black beans (taosi) and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Chubby Concubine Drumsticks?
---Small chicken drummettes stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Plus garlic, ginger, sweetbeanpaste, and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Chairman Mao's Special Prawns?
---Frozen shrimp stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Plus ricewine, sugar, slivered ham, extra hotsauce, and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
[Note: Vegetarian version made with wheat gluten. Do not feed leftovers to your cat or dog.]
Imperial Golden Phoenix Meets Eight Jade Immortals For An Orgasmic Foodfight In The Azure Western Heavens At Sunrise?
---Sliced pork, chicken, and beef stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. With soysauce, sweetbeanpaste, extra hotsauce, and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Shrimp or chicken added to any dish upon request, three dollars extra.
"Yummers, white person, yummers. Thank you, and come again."
I'm looking forward to sharing food with my coworkers.
I'm just wondering where to have lunch afterwards.
As far as food is concerned, the financial district is a blasted heath.
There is something almost sacramental about eating with others. In many cultures, if you are asked to have a bite with someone it is a rudeness to refuse. In Tamarao we say that when you are asked, accept with alacrity. This is especially important when it comes to festive meals and celebratory events. You absolutely must eat, even if only a little bit. You are sharing in the joy of the occasion, and adding to the event by sharing in it.
Think of it as a cultural or social mitzvah.
So I will gladly be part of the happy meal.
We'll probably go to a Hunanese restaurant just south of Market Street. It is a well-known place, much loved by many who work in the downtown.
---------
HUNANESE FOOD
The problem with Hunanese food is that it is the perfect cuisine for Cantonese restaurateurs who know that they are mediocre cooks, and do not wish to have their own countrymen lambast them for serving muck. Cantonese customers who feel that the food is sub-par will be vocal, and vociferous. Even unpleasant. Perhaps lyrical. Eloquent in any case. And very hard to shut up.
[Calling yourself a Hunanese Restaurant warns the Cantonese to go elsewhere. They know.]
White folks, on the other hand, will eat anything.
Just stirfry it with chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage, and call it Hunanese. Add dried chilies to the pan beforehand, and something condimental with cornstarch water for a velvety wok-glaze near the end.
General Bong's Pork?
---Sliced pork stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Farfara pepper and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Duke Mou's Chicken?
---Sliced chicken breast stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Soy sauce and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Black Bean Sauce Beef?
---Sliced beef stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Coarsely mashed salted black beans (taosi) and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Chubby Concubine Drumsticks?
---Small chicken drummettes stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Plus garlic, ginger, sweetbeanpaste, and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Chairman Mao's Special Prawns?
---Frozen shrimp stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. Plus ricewine, sugar, slivered ham, extra hotsauce, and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
[Note: Vegetarian version made with wheat gluten. Do not feed leftovers to your cat or dog.]
Imperial Golden Phoenix Meets Eight Jade Immortals For An Orgasmic Foodfight In The Azure Western Heavens At Sunrise?
---Sliced pork, chicken, and beef stirfried with dried chilies plus chopped carrots, bellpepper, and cabbage. With soysauce, sweetbeanpaste, extra hotsauce, and cornstarch water added for a velvety wok-glaze.
Shrimp or chicken added to any dish upon request, three dollars extra.
"Yummers, white person, yummers. Thank you, and come again."
I'm looking forward to sharing food with my coworkers.
I'm just wondering where to have lunch afterwards.
As far as food is concerned, the financial district is a blasted heath.
Monday, May 21, 2007
MY GAST IS VERY MUCHLY FLABBERED!
A comment which Muse (http://me-ander.blogspot.com/) left underneath one of my posts about bank scam spam alerted me to the fact that I made it to the finals in the JIBS.
Floor me with a feather.
I didn't even know I was in the running.
See the bottom of this page:
http://www.jibawards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=193
Where you will see the name of this blog listed among the Best Kosher Food/Recipe Blog - Finalists.
[Time for a brocha: "Baruch atta Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha olam, asher flabberei et-gasteinu".]
Someone must have nominated me. I don't know who you are, but thank you.
The other finalists are :
http://rjmedwed.blogspot.com/
Because I'm In My Twenties And It's What You Do (Robbie - think about Coca Cola and brisket, among other things).
http://glutenfreebay.blogspot.com/
Gluten Free By The Bay.
http://fireinmykitchen.blogspot.com/
Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen - single dad, kosher food.
http://humus101.com/EN/
Humus 101.
http://inmolaraan.blogspot.com/
The Chocolate Lady - In Mol Araan: A blog about food and words in Yiddish and English including but not limited to cooking, recipes, culinary lexicography, delights and curiosities of the plant world, and cookbooks.
http://jcarrot.org/
The Jew And The Carrot - Jews, food, and contemporary issues.
http://www.me-ander.blogspot.com/
Me-ander. Three contributors: Sarah, Muse, and Isramom. All three of these are multi-bloggers, being contributors elsewhere besides.
http://twoheadsoflettuce.blogspot.com/
Simple recipes for vegetarian potlucks by: Ezer K'negdo, Ruby K, BZ, Suz, shamirpower, General Anna, Ahavatcafe, Amanda M, EAR, Sarah Chaya, Feygele, bgp, abunaftali, granola bard, ZT, MR.
Considering the excellent company I find myself in, I am humbled.
And I realize that I have some standards up to which to live. Uuuuy.
Floor me with a feather.
I didn't even know I was in the running.
See the bottom of this page:
http://www.jibawards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=68&Itemid=193
Where you will see the name of this blog listed among the Best Kosher Food/Recipe Blog - Finalists.
[Time for a brocha: "Baruch atta Adonai Eloheinu, Melech ha olam, asher flabberei et-gasteinu".]
Someone must have nominated me. I don't know who you are, but thank you.
The other finalists are :
http://rjmedwed.blogspot.com/
Because I'm In My Twenties And It's What You Do (Robbie - think about Coca Cola and brisket, among other things).
http://glutenfreebay.blogspot.com/
Gluten Free By The Bay.
http://fireinmykitchen.blogspot.com/
Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen - single dad, kosher food.
http://humus101.com/EN/
Humus 101.
http://inmolaraan.blogspot.com/
The Chocolate Lady - In Mol Araan: A blog about food and words in Yiddish and English including but not limited to cooking, recipes, culinary lexicography, delights and curiosities of the plant world, and cookbooks.
http://jcarrot.org/
The Jew And The Carrot - Jews, food, and contemporary issues.
http://www.me-ander.blogspot.com/
Me-ander. Three contributors: Sarah, Muse, and Isramom. All three of these are multi-bloggers, being contributors elsewhere besides.
http://twoheadsoflettuce.blogspot.com/
Simple recipes for vegetarian potlucks by: Ezer K'negdo, Ruby K, BZ, Suz, shamirpower, General Anna, Ahavatcafe, Amanda M, EAR, Sarah Chaya, Feygele, bgp, abunaftali, granola bard, ZT, MR.
Considering the excellent company I find myself in, I am humbled.
And I realize that I have some standards up to which to live. Uuuuy.
I AM THE BILE-MONKEY!
Imagine a conference room with about five dozen people.
Imagine that, after discussing legitimate company business, we then get forced to listen to a well-meaning lecture about reducing our carbon foot-print, greenifying the planet, and more or less saving the cetaceans.
Did I ever mention that Mondays are not my good day?
No?
Well then, MONDAYS..... ARE..... NOT...... MY..... GOOD..... DAY!
So, while being harangued, I looked around the room.
Over half of the people there own motor vehicles.
I don't drive.
Over two-thirds of the people there have reproduced.
I have never spawned.
Over three-quarters of the people there buy bottled water.
I drink tap.
I now have some suggestions for the next person who decides a captive audience is a suitable sponge for their sanctimony.
Encourage road-rage and parking violence. Do not watch teevee, just sit in the dark. Do not read, just sit in the dark. Burn your own waste for warmth. Do not wash. Eat raw unrinsed vegetables. If you live in California, do not eat rice.
Do not drink beverages the basic ingredients of which are not grown in your micro-climate, do not eat foods that are not grown in your state, and do not wear clothes that are not made in your country.
And above all, do not presume to tell me how to live my life until I can afford to be as wasteful and self-indulgent as your own suburbanite consumerist self. Thank you. Now please breathe my second-hand tobacco fumes.
Imagine that, after discussing legitimate company business, we then get forced to listen to a well-meaning lecture about reducing our carbon foot-print, greenifying the planet, and more or less saving the cetaceans.
Did I ever mention that Mondays are not my good day?
No?
Well then, MONDAYS..... ARE..... NOT...... MY..... GOOD..... DAY!
So, while being harangued, I looked around the room.
Over half of the people there own motor vehicles.
I don't drive.
Over two-thirds of the people there have reproduced.
I have never spawned.
Over three-quarters of the people there buy bottled water.
I drink tap.
I now have some suggestions for the next person who decides a captive audience is a suitable sponge for their sanctimony.
Encourage road-rage and parking violence. Do not watch teevee, just sit in the dark. Do not read, just sit in the dark. Burn your own waste for warmth. Do not wash. Eat raw unrinsed vegetables. If you live in California, do not eat rice.
Do not drink beverages the basic ingredients of which are not grown in your micro-climate, do not eat foods that are not grown in your state, and do not wear clothes that are not made in your country.
And above all, do not presume to tell me how to live my life until I can afford to be as wasteful and self-indulgent as your own suburbanite consumerist self. Thank you. Now please breathe my second-hand tobacco fumes.
Friday, May 18, 2007
REPORTING IN WAR MODE
SUB-HEAD: Gaza is a greater mess than had ever been thought possible. Palestinian management skills leave something to be desired. Surprised?
Over one hundred rockets have been fired off at Sderot from locations in Gaza in the last week by Hamas and its pals.
Israel, which delayed reaction longer than was necessary or even sane, perhaps out of a hope-against-hope that confrontation could be avoided, has struck back in the last day and a half.
Predictably the Hamas leadership has voiced outrage and called for massive bloody revenge against the Zionist monster, threatening suicide bombings and other creative acts.
[Note of perspective: Far fewer Hamas members have perished as a result of recent Israeli actions than have snuffed it in the internecine combat between Hamas and Fatah. Note also that Fatah have suffered more casualties than Hamas in the gang-battles on the streets of Gaza these past two weeks.]
For good up-to-date coverage on this war, from a realistic and Israeli perspective, please visit Jameel at the Muqata.
Link: http://muqata.blogspot.com/
Calling it a war is perhaps an overstatement, as there has been no significant Israeli incursion, the Qassams from Gaza in the direction of Sderot (and soon also Ashkelon) are routine and entirely predictable attempts to massacre civilians, and so far more Palestinians have slaughtered each other since this latest round started than have been killed by Israeli actions.
It is perhaps better to think of it as a Beirut-type conflict, with the sparks and shrapnel from the main participants (Hamas and Fatah) hitting the bystanders, and provocative acts by both participants the sole purpose of which is to draw the attention of outsiders, with the hope that other parties will get involved and so change the equation.
The only way in which this gangbanging significantly differs from the Beirut fracas of a generation ago is that the Gazan factions represent the same ethno-religious group, and still enthusiastically cheer the deaths of Jews. In Beirut, for a while, there were ethno-religious differences and they were more enthusiastic about the deaths of each other. Barring that, rape and torture.
Over one hundred rockets have been fired off at Sderot from locations in Gaza in the last week by Hamas and its pals.
Israel, which delayed reaction longer than was necessary or even sane, perhaps out of a hope-against-hope that confrontation could be avoided, has struck back in the last day and a half.
Predictably the Hamas leadership has voiced outrage and called for massive bloody revenge against the Zionist monster, threatening suicide bombings and other creative acts.
[Note of perspective: Far fewer Hamas members have perished as a result of recent Israeli actions than have snuffed it in the internecine combat between Hamas and Fatah. Note also that Fatah have suffered more casualties than Hamas in the gang-battles on the streets of Gaza these past two weeks.]
For good up-to-date coverage on this war, from a realistic and Israeli perspective, please visit Jameel at the Muqata.
Link: http://muqata.blogspot.com/
Calling it a war is perhaps an overstatement, as there has been no significant Israeli incursion, the Qassams from Gaza in the direction of Sderot (and soon also Ashkelon) are routine and entirely predictable attempts to massacre civilians, and so far more Palestinians have slaughtered each other since this latest round started than have been killed by Israeli actions.
It is perhaps better to think of it as a Beirut-type conflict, with the sparks and shrapnel from the main participants (Hamas and Fatah) hitting the bystanders, and provocative acts by both participants the sole purpose of which is to draw the attention of outsiders, with the hope that other parties will get involved and so change the equation.
The only way in which this gangbanging significantly differs from the Beirut fracas of a generation ago is that the Gazan factions represent the same ethno-religious group, and still enthusiastically cheer the deaths of Jews. In Beirut, for a while, there were ethno-religious differences and they were more enthusiastic about the deaths of each other. Barring that, rape and torture.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
PLANS FOR SATURDAY
I'll be counter-demonstrating the Bay Area Women in Black again this Saturday. Same as the last five or six weeks. Along with about a dozen other members of SF Voice for Israel.
It's actually quite enjoyable. You see, our presence discomfits them. They feel less assured about their cause than they would if we were not facing them and disputing their point of view. Dark clouds drift across the sun for them when we are around.
Given that I am usually operating under a lack of sleep, and an insufficiency of caffeination on Saturday morning, that's one hell of an achievement. It's a lot more than I would otherwise be capable of.
[Speaking purely for myself here - other members of SF Voice for Israel are much more awake at that hour on a Saturday, and one or two of them have brass balls besides. A capable lot.]
Although the Bay Area Women in Black claim to be for peace and have endorsed the two state solution, they have demonized Israel, lambasted the IDF, praised those who used or advocated violence against Israel, said naught about the victims on the Israeli side, and stood in solidarity with anti-Semites. They standardly denounce all Israeli self-defensive actions.
Those who have stood with them have demanded an end to all support for Israel, lauded suicide bombers, and called for the violent destruction of the state of Israel and all Jews.
More than mere anti-Semitism, although that certainly plays a part, there is something obscene about the obsession that some do-goodniks have with Israel and the Palestinians, in addition to a twisted white guilt thing.
To see exactly what I mean by that, click on this link:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/05/perspective_you.html
[The image is on Treppenwitz's site - he got it from elsewhere, and credits pixane.net/blog.]
"Right now entire villages in Darfur are being murdered. But please, keep talking about Israel."
Makes one wish that psychological help was more widely available. People like the Bay Area Women in Black would benefit from it.
Fortunately, this Saturday is also the day that they will have their therapy-workshop on centering themselves and cleaning their auras, or whatever it actually is that they've hired that consultant to teach them. Our presence has so upset and hurt them that they went and got some help. They're probably also going to do some role-playing exercises.
Perhaps I should lend them my mock-up of Farfur the Vicious Hamas Mouse - they probably love his soft-fuzzy charm and childish voice.
-------------------------------------------------
Yes, I know that this is not a nice post. It isn't meant to be.
Not only do I deny that the point of view of Bay Area Women in Black has any validity, and refuse to accept that every issue has two sides - which is nothing more than a stupid cliché - but I despise them and their loathsome agenda.
It's actually quite enjoyable. You see, our presence discomfits them. They feel less assured about their cause than they would if we were not facing them and disputing their point of view. Dark clouds drift across the sun for them when we are around.
Given that I am usually operating under a lack of sleep, and an insufficiency of caffeination on Saturday morning, that's one hell of an achievement. It's a lot more than I would otherwise be capable of.
[Speaking purely for myself here - other members of SF Voice for Israel are much more awake at that hour on a Saturday, and one or two of them have brass balls besides. A capable lot.]
Although the Bay Area Women in Black claim to be for peace and have endorsed the two state solution, they have demonized Israel, lambasted the IDF, praised those who used or advocated violence against Israel, said naught about the victims on the Israeli side, and stood in solidarity with anti-Semites. They standardly denounce all Israeli self-defensive actions.
Those who have stood with them have demanded an end to all support for Israel, lauded suicide bombers, and called for the violent destruction of the state of Israel and all Jews.
More than mere anti-Semitism, although that certainly plays a part, there is something obscene about the obsession that some do-goodniks have with Israel and the Palestinians, in addition to a twisted white guilt thing.
To see exactly what I mean by that, click on this link:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2007/05/perspective_you.html
[The image is on Treppenwitz's site - he got it from elsewhere, and credits pixane.net/blog.]
"Right now entire villages in Darfur are being murdered. But please, keep talking about Israel."
Makes one wish that psychological help was more widely available. People like the Bay Area Women in Black would benefit from it.
Fortunately, this Saturday is also the day that they will have their therapy-workshop on centering themselves and cleaning their auras, or whatever it actually is that they've hired that consultant to teach them. Our presence has so upset and hurt them that they went and got some help. They're probably also going to do some role-playing exercises.
Perhaps I should lend them my mock-up of Farfur the Vicious Hamas Mouse - they probably love his soft-fuzzy charm and childish voice.
-------------------------------------------------
Yes, I know that this is not a nice post. It isn't meant to be.
Not only do I deny that the point of view of Bay Area Women in Black has any validity, and refuse to accept that every issue has two sides - which is nothing more than a stupid cliché - but I despise them and their loathsome agenda.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
ELISHA BEN ABUYAH
Elisha ben Abuyah, a talmudic scholar from second century C.E., was excommunicated for heresy. It is said that four men entered Pardes. Ben Azzai died, Ben Zoma lost his mind, Rabbi Akiva entered whole and left whole, and Acher (Elisha ben Abuyah) cut the shoots (became heretical).
His disciple Rabbi Meir remained loyal to Elisha and is honored as a sage. Which says much. Meir digested the content of his teaching, but discarded the shell
It is said of Elisha that in consequence of his mother smelling the roasting meat of an idolatrous sacrifice he became a heretic. Yet Rabbi Yochanan’s mother even ate such meat – and Rabbi Yochanan was a righteous man.
It is written that events he witnessed lead him to question the concept of divine reward – evenso, he is counted among the righteous, because of the Torah that he learned and taught.
His disciple Rabbi Meir remained loyal to Elisha and is honored as a sage. Which says much. Meir digested the content of his teaching, but discarded the shell
It is said of Elisha that in consequence of his mother smelling the roasting meat of an idolatrous sacrifice he became a heretic. Yet Rabbi Yochanan’s mother even ate such meat – and Rabbi Yochanan was a righteous man.
It is written that events he witnessed lead him to question the concept of divine reward – evenso, he is counted among the righteous, because of the Torah that he learned and taught.
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GRITS AND TOFU
Like most Americans, I have a list of people who should be peacefully retired from public service and thereafter kept away from their desks,...
