PRO-ISRAEL VOICES IN SAN FRANCISCO

All the usual people were on the streets of San Francisco yesterday during the demonstration against Israel. But really, no more than the usual people. Hate-filled bigots, ideological wankers, opportunistic trouble-makers, garden-variety anti-Semites, and misguided hippies. Hi guys!
Gee, that's ALL you could manage?



HATRED'S CHEERLEADERS

International ANSWER, organizers of anti-Semitic events in the Bay Area, must be getting desperate. Their hardcore was there, and their safety monitors this time nearly outnumbered the Arab jugend. But it was probably one of their most pathetic demonstrations yet.
They only managed about twelve hundred people.

It will be remembered that at the start of the Iraq war over a quarter of a million people took to the streets of San Francisco.
At demonstrations a few years ago, International ANSWER pulled together three or four thousand happy anti-Semites.
Last year during the fifth-anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, with three months of organization meetings and tactical planning, ANSWER and their willing dunces managed to have a few dozen people block some intersections for an hour here and there. Most of the direct action trolls were in custody by nine am.
And yesterday?
After an entire week of intensive organizing, e-mails, textmails, pamphletting, and sign-ups?
Twelve hundred. Not even.



PRO-ISRAEL DEMONSTRATORS

The sane and rational side managed a more impressive showing than I actually expected. Altogether, there were well over four hundred of us on the pro-Israel side. Families, young couples, elderly Russians, fresh-faced youths. Our side represented a significantly broader cross-spectrum than our opponents.



THUGGISM AND IGNORANCE

The SF Chronicle called the anti-Israel event a peaceful protest.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/10/BAK6157880.DTL

Which, despite the attack on an elderly woman, the occasional roughing up of passing Jews, and the strong-arm theft of some Israeli flags by Arab bullies, I guess it mostly was.
[Note: some of the stolen flags were subsequently set on fire by masked young gentlemen to the general joy of other participants.]

The Anarchists had promised to come and commit vandalism. But their internet presence is more impressive than their actual number in the real world. That old style violent Berkeleyite goonery has fewer adherents with each passing year. Not a single one of them showed up.

Much of the violence was verbal or textual.

One or two deranged people came over to scream incoherently before being escorted back to their side by the police. There were several Jew-hating chants from the line of face-covered Keffiyeh youth, and many of the handmade signs equated Zionism with Nazism. One totally baffling sign opined that Zionism was Anti-Semitism. An unusual sign stated that Gaza in 2008 was the same as the Warsaw Ghetto in 1938.
1938?
1938?!?
1938!?!?!

Okay then, 1938.
Have it your way.

INTERNATIONAL ANSWER AND YOUR BASER INSTINCTS

After Wednesday night's disgraceful performance in Oakland, where, with ANSWER's organized encouragement, a demonstration over the shooting of an un-armed handcuffed and subdued young man by BART police, turned into a violent melee in which ANSWER signs were used to destroy windows and damage parked vehicles (and oddly, some of the video shows one or two vandals wearing keffiyehs), ANSWER might worry that future protest-permits are iffy. There was somewhat less bloodthirsty chanting than at previous demos.
I only heard a few of the usual Arabic slogans, which were not as loud nor as sustained, as at previous hate-fests organized by ANSWER.
Perhaps they've learned that screaming "massacre the Jews" in Arabic is not as opaque as they presumed.

Still, some of the Arab jugend did act predictably. Their parents must be so ashamed at their children's lack of manners and morals.
Or not.
Maybe apathetic.


The most entertaining part of International ANSWER's buffoonery, however, were the speeches. These ran the gamut from an Arab woman having unintelligible hysterics on cue into a microphone, through an IRA terrorist drawing ridiculous comparisons, to some accented British revolutionary speaking fondly of the day when Hebrew-speaking labouring classes and the proletariat of the Arab world would create a workers-paradise in which everybody could manifest their full potential in a spirit of brotherly love and co-operation, heroically overcoming Capitalism, Religion, and Fascism.

It was a hoot.

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

IN OTHER NEWS

FRIDAY
01/09/09
On Friday, two middle-aged female Zionists managed to discourage about twenty five Israel-haters in Alameda holding a pro-Hamas vigil. Mere moments after the two ladies with their Israeli flags showed up, the pro-Hamas side skedaddled while customers of a restaurant and a bar nearby came out to thank the pro-Israel side for showing up.

SATURDAY
01/10/09
Early Saturday evening, homosexual anti-Israel demonstrators held a noisy event in the Castro district, to the general disapproval of most of the people on the street. They were counter-protested by several local activists, and a swelling number of passers-by.
Most gay San Franciscans are keenly aware that only one state in the Mid-East offers gays full rights and protection. So when the Israel-haters started throwing shoes, in imitation of their ideological cohorts in parts of the extremist world, enthusiastic volunteers gathered up the flung footwear for deposit in nearby garbage cans. This proved discomfiting to the pro-terror side, as the throwers were left barefoot in consequence.
Note: Sidewalk cement is particularly frigid and uncomfortable at this time of year.

SUNDAY
01/11/09
Today, starting at 2:00 PM, pro-Israel demonstrators gathered in front of the consulate on Montgomery street, numbering nearly two hundred people at one point. Many carried Israel and American flags, others had signs advocating peace and a cessation of Hamas terrorism. People driving by waved, and many honked in support. Very inspiring.

MOROCCAN DUTCH

Over the past several days I have read innumerable comments in Dutch pursuant the recent events in the Mid-East and their reverberations in the Netherlands.


Amid the anti-Semitic tendencies and protests, it is clear that there is strong support for Israel among large segments of Dutch society.
Despite the idiocy displayed by such people as Harry van Bommel, Gretta Duisenberg, and Anja Meulenbelt, et al.
Many Dutch wholeheartedly support Israel's right to exist, in peace and security, as the ultimate embodiment of the eternal Jewish nation.
And a very large number consider Israel's actions fully justified.

The screaming mobs in Amsterdam and Utrecht, and the hypocrites and opportunists from the socialist party, do not represent the majority of the Dutch.
In the eyes of many, Hamas is to blame for recent events, and the Arab world is clearly biased and partisan. This has been made clear in well-thought out article after well-thought out article, comment after comment.



MOSTLY MOROCCANS FROM THE INNER CITIES

Some writers, pro-Israel in every way, go even further, and damn and castigate every single Muslim living in the Netherlands as an undesirable, an extremist, and a petty criminal. And conclude by demanding the expulsion of all Turks and Moroccans.

You, dear reader, will I hope understand that I am uncomfortable with such sentiments.

I was once an allochtoon in the Netherlands, and despite evident brilliance and a Dutch education, was not employable because I was an outsider who did not belong.

While I sympathize with those Dutch who look around them and see the country they knew gone, and a different and more frightening country in its place, and while on an emotional level I agree that there are far too many angry Muslims infesting Dutch metropoleis.......

Please do not forget: these are YOUR Muslims. You let them in. Many of them were born there. Many of them speak Dutch better than Turkish, Tuareg, or Arabic. They were educated in YOUR schools, and, though their values are sometimes retrograde and primitive, those are values that have been nurtured in your cities.
They are your hothouse plants.

Yes, there are many you could probably well do without. Many whom you and I would gladly see the last of.

But if it were to come to that, there would be also many whom you would prefer to keep. And even more who, having done the work that Dutchmen refused to do, for over two decades, have invested their energies in Dutch society. They hold Dutch passports, they cheer Dutch football teams, they put up with your climate and your food.
By trying to make a separation, you would do them all an injustice.

It isn't that long ago that the Surinamers were the undesirables. And before that, the loyalist exiles from the East Indies. I remember that both groups were described as unwilling to integrate, un-absorbable, anti-social, not really our kind of people, and, well, you know, not strictly pale enough.

There was also a time when Frieslanders and people with funny country-side accents weren't socially acceptable either.


Before that, it was Jews and Catholics (or, in Brabant and Limburg, Jews and Protestants).

And before that, Jews and .........


Like many of you, I am also furious about the screamed Jew-hatred at demonstrations, the fire-bombing of synagogues in various European countries, and the burning of effigies and flags.

But I would much rather break the knees of the actual perpetrators with an iron bar, than hold all of their kin responsible. I like the iron bar, I have no problems with the iron bar. I encourage selective use of the iron bar.

But demonization, no. Absolutely not.

Really, the failure of so many of them to play well with others is also your fault. Once you let someone in, you are obliged to give them a fair shake. Did you really do that?
Having been the outsider once, I am fairly certain that you left a bit wanting on that score.
It is up to you to mold them in your image. Perhaps, just perhaps, the problem lies also with you Dutch. And if that is indeed so, I am confident that you can solve it equitably.

Please give what I just said some thought tonight, while you eat your broodje shawerma or your donur kabab, and let me know your conclusions.

Een goede en gebentsjte sjabbes gewenst aan u allen.

DUTCH HAMAS MEMBERS

Oh dear. I appear to have upset several hundred Dutch people. And many of them are now hopping mad.

Yesterday I had the temerity to post the names of notable Dutch Hamas Supporters, with the suggestion that they be put on a no-fly list - we Americans, certainly, do not need any of the people I listed visiting us anytime soon, and it would be just as well if they were never allowed out of Europe again.


The list of Dutch Hamas Supporters is here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/01/dutch-hamas-supporters.html


Normally I do not expect many bloghits. After all, the thoughts of a grumpy pipe smoking middle-aged member of the International Zionist Conspiracy™ living in San Francisco are hardly that interesting. At least not to many people outside the pipe-smoking community or the International Zionist Conspiracy™.


But GeenStijl decided otherwise. And linked me in a lovely little blurble.
Here:
http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2009/01/auschwitzcomite_nooit_meer_har.html


Quote: "In ieder geval hebben diverse Vrienden van Israel de kwestie inmiddels opgepakt. De naam van Van Bommel - alsmede de rest van de SP-fractie - staat op internet inmiddels synoniem voor Dutch Hamas Supporters. "
['In any case, various friends of Israel have taken up the issue. The name of Van Bommel - as well as the rest of the SP parliamentary fraction - have become synonymous with 'Dutch Hamas Supporters' on the internet.']


This in the context of an article indicating that mr. Van Bommel may be disinvited from this year's and all future commemorative events concerning the Dutch Jews betrayed and deported to the deathcamps. He and his good friend Gretta Duisenberg were screaming 'intifada intifada free Palestine' (Intifada, intifada, Palastina vrij!) while their companions were chanting 'Hamas Hamas, Jews to the gas' (Hamas Hamas, Joden aan het gas) during the anti-Israel march in Amsterdam last Saturday.

[Some of the other slogans chanted at that demonstration: "be roh, be dam, nafdeek ya falastin", and "Allahu Akbar", plus some gibberish about the holocaust, and threats of world-wide jihad. In addition to the Palestinian flag there were also numerous Hamas and Hezbollah banners - it will be remembered, of course, that monetary support for terrorist organizations comes from many residents of Europe.]


The result of GeenStijl's linkage was that I received many more hits than normal, plus several more comments. And some hate mail.
Of which, herewith, a sampling.


Reader RooieRakker writes:
"Vuile jode pooier.... "
[Filthy Jew pimp ....]

My dear RooieRakker, I did not know your sister was looking for work in the United States. Please forward her picture and contact information, and I shall endeavor to arrange something suitable.


Reader Hamza writes:
"Je bent en vuile zionidt en moordenaar, jou moesyen ze afschiete ...."
[You are a (spelling error no. 1) filthy Zionist (spelling error no. 2, plus cap error) and murderer, you they should (spelling error no. 3) shoot to death (spelling error no. 4) ....]

My dear Hamza, please learn how to write Dutch. You might want to study the comments of Faaz, who seems capable of marshalling his thoughts and formulating excellent sentences in Dutch. Admittedly, Faaz hates all Jews with a passion, is furious about what the Zionists have done to his home country (Holland), and seems woefully misinformed besides - but I suspect that he is a product of a university, and has excellent diction too. He is very literate - quite the example for you.
Faaz is in all ways a most remarkable Moroccan Dutchman.


Reader PenisVaandel writes:
"Wat mij betreft kun je die jode xxx uit je bek doen en in je xxx stoppen"
[As far as I'm concerned you can take that Jew's p.... out of your mouth and stuff it in your a... ]

My dear Shmuckbanner, my postings are seldom about sex, and almost never about those predilections which are your field of expertise.


Reader AnonymusBosch writes:
"Ze hadden alle van jullie vuile rotjoden allang moeten aflsachten, dan sou de wereld er stukken schooner zijn "
[They should've massacred (spelling error) all (grammatical error) of you filthy rotten Jews a long time ago, then the world would (spelling error) have been a lot cleaner (grammatical error).]

My dear AnonymusBosch, I am touched that you are so concerned about cleanliness. Cleanliness is, as you know, next to godliness. We members of the International Zionist Conspiracy™ share your concerns, and to that end we support the cleaning-up of Gaza. It may never be as clean as my kitchen counter, but I assure you that we are doing our very best! There has already been much improvement. I encourage you to move there as soon as possible. As we say in Dutch, "opgeruimd staat netjes".


There was more in the same vein. The language of Vondel and Brederode has fallen on hard times.



Several other readers, who left comments on GeenStijl (http://www.geenstijl.nl/) and in several other places, validated my assertion that the people I had listed as Hamas Supporters in the Netherlands were in fact known and on record as such. It is the considered opinion of many that the entire SP leadership constitute a Hamas cell, and must be considered more than merely misguided.
And additionally, that International Socialism and National Socialism are in many ways the same.


Many readers also averred that Harry van Bommel is a notorious billenknijper.
I shall have to take their word for it - I am entirely unfamiliar with Harry van Bommel's sexual escapades, or his unsubtle approach to flirting. If you, my dear Dutch readers, wish to provide photographic or journalistic evidence of mr. Harry van Bommel performing the knyp on various billen, I shall be happy to peruse it. Not that I am truly interested in his knyping, or what bills he choses to knyp, but as a matter of accuracy in reporting I feel I must pursue the matter.

DENMARK NOT SAFE FOR JEWS?

I don't know what is more disturbing - that the Danes are powerless against thuggism, or that Danish educators see no problem with banning Jews for reasons of safety.


See this article:
http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/43930-schools-caught-up-in-palestinian-conflict.html

Quote: " ... schools with a high percentage of children of Arab descent say they try to prevent Jewish parents from enrolling their children there.

On Monday, headmaster Olav Nielsen of Humlehave School in Odense publicly admitted he would refuse Jewish parents' wish to place their child at his school.

[CUT]

Other headmasters have now come forth to support Nielsen's position, adding that they are putting the child's safety first. "



Most Americans living in Europe have already had to face that issue - American children in native schools in Europe were often beaten up (especially during and since the Nixon years), and parents have long since preferred to send their children to the nearest American school, OR leave their children in the United States when posted to Europe - but Jews in European countries have for centuries been parts of the societies in which they live, and are vested in continuing in that role.
Since Napoleon's emancipation of the Jews, there have been no reasons other than government-sanctioned anti-Semitism to separate Jews from the general populace in most European societies.
Yet in recent years it seems that Europeans have some regrets that there are still Jews and that the Jewish issue just will not go away.
[Especially now that other minorities have sprouted, and the Jews no longer need to be maintained as an advertisement that one is, despite a horrific past, a civilized and tolerant society.]


From the point of view of the Jews themselves, and for Americans, there really is no 'Jewish Issue'. But European societies still have cultural roots in some very dark-ages, and the social dialectic common in Europe has created a class and caste system in which different groups either segregate themselves, or are segregated by others.
[Turks, Moroccans, Gypsies, and Poles resident in Western Europe are other good examples of that tendency, not to mention members of non-majority religions, and immigrants from former colonies. 'Model Minority', in the minds of many, does not mean a group that blends in, but one that exemplifies how tolerant the majority has been, and continues to be.]


It seems that the Danes are tacitly admitting that their society has become ill, and that hate is the cause of that illness.
If Denmark is no longer safe for Jews, how safe is it for anyone else?

DUTCH HAMAS SUPPORTERS

For reference purposes, a short list of notable pro-Hamas activists living in the Netherlands:

Soliman Abu-Amara
Nancy Abu-Ghazaleh
Ameen Abu-Hanna
Andries van Agt
Yousef Ahmed
Farshad Bashir
Harry van Bommel
Jasper van Dijk
Gretta Duisenberg
Jalal el-Baz
Imad el-Kaka
Omar el-Khader
Arda Gerkens
Henk van Gerven
Sharon Gesthuizen
Hans van Heijningen
Hans van Hooft
Ewout Irrgang
Leila Jaffar
Paulus Jansen
Jawad Jodeh
Jamil Junedi
Agnes Kant
Sade Karabulut
Sahar Haj Kasem
Martinus (Tiny) Kox
Marianne Langkamp
Hans van Leeuwen
Renske Leijten
Paul Lempens
Fons Luijben
Jan Marijnissen
Erik T.M. Meijer
Anja H. Meulenbelt
Laila Nalawi
Ramsey Nasr
Hugo Polderman
Remi Poppe
Ronald van Raak
Nihal Rabbani
Emile Roemer
Nathalie de Rooij
Nico Schrevel
Tariq Shadid
Gaula Shehadeh
Mawi Shehadeh
Khalil Sima’an
Manja Smits
Radi Suudi
Zaid Tayem
Paul Ulenbelt
Krista van Velzen
Jan de Wit


With one exception, these people are either members of the Socialistische Partij or members of front-organizations, often both. The exception is former prime-minister Andries van Agt, who is an Anti-Semite of a type rather frightfully common in the Benelux (other examples: Gretta Duisenberg and Paul de Rooij - the reason why Paul is not on this list is that he lives in London).

All of these people have tacitly or actively endorsed continued terrorist attacks against Israel.
In that desire, they join the rest of European socialist parties (rebranded successors to the old-style Stalinist parties).

A more convincing argument for an expanded no-fly list is hard to imagine.

SF PRO-ISRAEL COUNTERDEMONSTRATION - SATURDAY JANUARY 10

The following is a message from San Francisco Voice for Israel.

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


ACTION ALERT - PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
Counter Protest International ANSWER's Anti-Israel Demonstration


This Saturday January 10
San Francisco at the Civic Center Plaza (we will gather on Polk between Larkin and McAllister Sts, directly in front of City Hall).
Meet at 11:00 AM


Once again, the streets of the Bay Area are filled with hate when Israel defends itself. International ANSWER and other anti-Israel groups in the area are claiming Israel's actions in Gaza are "genocide" . Groups protesting against Israel last week chanted "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) and "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), clear anti-Semitic hate speech.


The groups sponsoring these demonstrations demonize Israel, endorse Israel's destruction, and justify the terrorist acts against Israel that caused the current situation. In particular, International ANSWER is the group that forced its own racist, anti-Semitic propaganda on those who wanted to march just to oppose the war in Iraq. While SF Voice for Israel takes no position on the Iraq war, we oppose ANSWER's manipulation of the antiwar movement and its demonization of Israel. Previous ANSWER demonstrations have been notable for vicious anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and pro-terror signs, speakers and chants.

San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us will stand against the anti-Israel/pro-terrorism voices. Our presence at these events has proven highly effective at countering their message and making sure that the anti-Israel activists can not push their propaganda on the public unopposed! In addition, when the local media cover these demonstrations, they always film our presence so that the public can see that supporters of Israel are willing to stand up for the truth. (Those of you who were there with us last week even had your presence noted on
CNN!).


We know that many in our community will be unable to join us because this is on Shabbat. While we will never schedule our own events on Shabbat, we are standing up against the anti-Israel hate groups that usually schedule their protests for Saturdays, specifically to try to minimize the Jewish community response.
We will meet at 11 AM and stay until ANSWER leaves Civic Center Plaza to march through the streets. We do not encourage anyone to march near them in counterprotest once they leave the Civic Center area, as we cannot assure adequate police protection should elements in their rally decide to start a rampage.


Please bring your noisemakers, flags, and signs, AND please wear BLUE and WHITE. 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 in general. Signs in violation of our policies will not be allowed.


Demand an end to Palestinian rocket attacks against Israeli civilians!
Demand Cpl Gilad Shalit be returned home safely!
Demand Hamas put an end to terror attacks!
Demand an end to the deligitimization and demonization of Israel!
Demand that Hamas choose peace so that the Palestinian people can have a future!


San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.standwithus.com


for further information or questions: e-mail us at sfvoiceforisrael@yahoo.com
<mailto:sfvoiceforisrael%40yahoo.com>

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

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

NOTE

The anti-Israel demonstration which we will be counterprotesting is sponsored by the usual organizations: The ANSWER Coalition, Free Palestine Alliance, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, National Council of Arab Americans and Al-Awda-International Palestine Right to Return Coalition.
All of them seek the destruction of the United States and Israel. The first one listed (ANSWER) is the largest anti-Semitic hate-group in California.


Please also note that Bay Area Women in Black (BAWIB), Queers Undermining Isreali Terror (QUIT), and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have repeatedly endorsed the anti-American, anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel messages of the sponsors listed above, as well as stood in solidarity during speeches in favour of various terrorist groups, and while racist slogans (such as 'itbach al Yahud') where chanted.
It is time to call them to account for their support of bigotry and hate.



"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?"
-----Rabbi Hillel

ANTI-SEMITISM IN EUROPE

Israel's recent military action against the terrorists of Hamas has riled up the latent anti-Semitism of many in Europe. Hence the spectacle of thousands of middle-class Europeans taking to the streets to demand that Israel cease to defend herself, and passively allow rockets to continue to fall on Sderot and Ashkelon.



In some cases, members of European societies have reverted to age-old patterns. Let a few examples serve for all.




12/31/08
Assailants shot at Israelis in a shopping mall in Odense, Denmark, injuring two people. The attackers then drove off in a black car, which was subsequently left on the grounds of a local educational institution.

12/31/08
The AEL (Arab European league) handed out literature advocating war against all Jews world-wide at a demonstration in Belgium, along with religious literature justifying Jew-hate. The demonstration was marked by slogans calling for the extermination of Jews. The rally was also attended by members of several left-leaning parties.

01/03/09
Leaders of the Dutch Socialist Party joined hundreds screaming 'Hamas Hamas all Joden aan het gas' (Hamas Hamas all Jews to the gas) in the capitol city of the Netherlands on Saturday, along with many well-known anti-Israel activists and concerned racists.

01/04/09
During the night of January 4, attackers used petrol to set fire to part of a synagogue in London. The damage to the building was minor.

01/04/09
Greek politician and journalist George Karatzaferis in an editorial in a weekly news magazine called Jews Christ-killers and murderers of children, and said "it is known all over the world that a Jew smells of blood."

01/05/09
A firebomb was thrown at a synagogue in Brussels on Monday. The building was slightly damaged.

01/05/09
A synagogue in Toulouse, France, was rammed by activists driving two vehicles containing incendiary devices. The building was damaged in the ensuing conflagration, but there were no victims.


Undoubtedly there will be many more such incidents in the coming months. And considering that a pogrom of Antwerp's Jewish community was only narrowly averted, one has to wonder at the future of Judaism in Europe. Or leastways, about the future of Jews in Europe.

SABBATH OFF TO A ROCKY START

Links to a near-lynching in front of the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street.
Friday Jan. 2 at 5:15 PM, more or less.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMXH81ctj2o&eurl=http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208

Or here, with commentary, on Zombie's blog:
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=208


Five pro-Israel protestors.
Five hundred or more keffiyeh-wearing people.
One hundred to one.
I still think those are do-able odds.
Though I've never seen cops have hysterics before.



THE SCENE

The protests began at around noon at Powell and Market, wandered through the downtown fifteen hundred strong(*), then ended up in front of the consulate at four thirty. I could hear the crowd screaming
'ba rooh, ba dam, nafdeek ya falasteen' as they passed by on Montgomery Street.
[* Fifteen hundred is an educated guess, but it might have been as many as two thousand.]

The five of us headed over to the consulate shortly afterwards, with three Israeli flags and three signs.
[Our signs: 'STOP ROCKETS FROM GAZA', 'HAMAS MUST BE DESTROYED', and 'HAMAS HAD IT COMING']

Once they saw us, the Palestinian side started screaming threats and insults, and one of them jumped up and down on an Israeli flag while erecting his middle digit. Shoes were also waved.
[They can't spit very far. At least not without significant blow-back.]



FRACAS

Several young Palestinian gallants started hitting one of our group (a middle-aged woman), at which point one of us rushed over and tried to break some ribs. Then the cops dragged us off, and tried to herd us away from the points of contact. Someone on the Palestinian side threw a handful of small change, and in addition to the middle-digit salute some of them made the money-grubbing gesture. Shortly afterwards the yelling mob crashed over the barriers screaming threats, and the cops had a fit - several officers pushed us inside a nearby building, where we were made to stay for a while, after which they drove us to somewhere else in a small caravan of police vehicles.


Other counter-protestors?
Well, pro-Israel is rather spread out, not very well organized, and mostly fully employed.
Anti-Israel is distinctly urban, and either unemployable, local student, or running liquor stores in the seedier sections of Oakland and SF. At that point in time, most of the pro-Palestinian Jewish protestors and their Intellectually anti-Semitic Gentile friends (JVP, Women in Black, et al) were heading towards Market street to go home, leaving the rowdies entirely un-babysat. And seeing as the anti-Israel manifestation was a well-organized spontaneous demonstration, the five of us were the only counter-demonstrators to show up.


Cigars?
Had to chuck one, hardly smoked, when the cops hustled us into a lobby of a nearby office building and barricaded the door. Still wish they hadn't jammed us into the building quite so soon - I had barely lit up, and had to waste nearly an entire cigarillo.


Thoughts during this sequence of events:
"I can take out three, maybe four of five, before they get me."
"Probably won't feel any pain till I wake up dead."
"There's a few of them I can cripple, easily."

Thoughts afterwards:
"I wish someone would whack that bitch Anja Meulenbelt....., oh, and Harry van Bommel too."
"Nearly getting killed is very dehydrating....., time for tea."
"Good thing my uncle and aunt will never hear about this."
"Glock 17, nine millimeter. Or a Browning GP35."
"Next time hit higher and get 'em in the face."


Adrenaline is marvelous. It cleared out my sinus head-ache and my stuffy nose.
I have never felt so alive. Thanks guys.

PROUD TO BE ASHAMED TO BE JEWISH

What would make the members of Jewish Voice for Peace and Bay Area Women in Black stand alongside protestors screaming for the extermination of Jews?


The answer is relatively simple: UncleTomism.


Here in the Bay Area Jew hatred is particularly virulent, and socially sanctioned. It is, for people who define themselves as 'liberal' but are incapable of thinking further than the label, extremely comfortable to censure Israel, and to progress from that censure to full-blown hate.
This tendency is supported by many progressives, and has a long history in the Bay Area. It is the acme of politically correct - even in a place where political correctness is a competitive sport.

This is by no means a development of recent weeks, but goes back years. And in many cases it is supported by officials, the intelligentsia, and academe (SFSU and UC Berkeley).


Please click on the links below for the merest sampling.


Hate graffiti reported at Jewish eatery - August 20, 2002
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2002-08-20/article/14162?headline=Hate-graffiti-reported-at-Jewish-eatery


Food fight in tofu-land - Thursday, December 5, 2002
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/12/05/ED233964.DTL


Activists at a Jewish peace rally are confronted by a mob - May 9, 2002
http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Fear_and_Loathing_at_San_Francisco_State.asp


Bus 19 Anti-Terrorism rally in Berkeley - January 16, 2005.
http://www.zombietime.com/bus_19_berkeley/

ADL Offers Reward in San Francisco Hate Crime - January 4, 2006.
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/HatCr_51/4846_51.htm


The Arabs Still Openly Call Jews 'Their Dogs,' Even in S.F. - September 30, 2006
http://www.ifcj.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=13816


It is in such an atmosphere, where being Jewish or supporting Israel are considered major flaws in one's character, that many people whose connection to Judaism is both nominal and uncomfortable at best, eventually decide to assuage their friends, colleagues, and lovers, by being more anti-Jewish than the anti-Jews.
JVP, and Bay Area Women in Black, give them a convenient out - and allow them to fly interference for some of the really rabid Jew-haters, such as the mobs from International ANSWER and other branches of the peace-movement.
It is perhaps a tribute to the tolerance for which northern California is famous that even such fervent 'Jew-don't-wannabes' are welcome.
Ideology counts for much in Berkeley and San Francisco.


Please note that while I mention Bay Area Women in Black, not all of that group are actually self-hating Jews - many of them are Jew-hating Presbyterians and Episcopalians from churches in Berkeley and North-Oakland, and some of them (well, actually, only two of them) lonely old-style anarcho-syndicalists from a radical bookstore in San Francisco.
The San Francisco branch of Bay Area Women in Black consists mostly of dysfunctionals from QUIT (Queers Undermining Israeli Terror), rejectionists, wiccans, plus assorted fellow-travelers. Again, many of them are not Jewish either, or, at best, only Jews of convenience (whenever it is convenient for someone to say "I can't be anti-Semitic, some of my best friends are Jews" - presto, there they are).
Wanting to blame someone for your psychological problems (whining, in other words) is a powerful motivator. And, in the Bay Area, a holy war.


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

4:05 PM
As I write this, I can hear the passing rabble yelling for Jewish blood on the street outside my office. Which is a distinctly San Francisco occurrence. They started at Powell and Market earlier today, they are finally here, heading toward the consulate. Arabic is a wonderful language. So evocative.

There are about thousand of them. Many are not Arabs.

JEW HATE IN SF: DEMONSTRATION IN FRONT OF THE ISRAELI CONSULATE TUESDAY DECEMBER 30, 2008

Apparently, I am a Jew Faggot. This per a large very dark gentleman representing International ANSWER, organizers of yesterday's protest in front of the Israeli Consulate on Montgomery Street.

Or it could be that he was a member of the Muslim American Society Freedom, the National Council of Arab Americans, Free Palestine Alliance, Al-Awda - International Palestine Coalition for the Right of Return, Bay Area Women in Black, Society for Justice in Palestine, ISM, the Spartacists, the South Bay Alliance, the Anti-Zionist Jews, or Jewish Voice for Peace. All of whom were either sponsors or participants in the largest Israel-bashing fest in SF since 2006.

But the group he represented is not the point. He was utterly convinced that I was a Jew Faggot, and very vocal about it. He does not appear to much like Jew Faggots.

I have no problem with the term, so it is with profound humility and pride that I accept the appellation 'Jew Faggot' as a badge of honour.

I was also informed by several other supporters of the Palestinian cause that I was a dog, a pig, a monkey, inhuman, the son of a whore, and that I deserved to be shot, gutted, slashed open, have my children killed, and see my wife raped.

[Given that I am, apparently, a Jew Faggot, it is not clear what is meant by the term 'wife' - explication is required. Thank you.]

And by gum, they believed themselves the ones to do all that - if only there weren't so many witnesses, dash it all.



PRO-ISRAEL COUNTERDEMONSTRATION
4:45 PM - 6:45 PM

At which approximately 100 - 120 supporters of Israel meet nearly three thousand screaming Palestinians, Peace activists, Presbyterians, Pakistanis, and assorted other Protestants and politically obtuse personages.
Plus some angry people from the Yemeni mosque on Bush Sutter Street between Polk and Van Ness (At-Tawfikheed Yemenis Cultural Center).

[Correction 01/05/2009: Masjid Al-Tawheed, 1227 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94109-5516. Denomination: Sunni (Salafi). Demographics: Predominantly Yemeni. Prayers offered: All daily prayers including formal jum'a. Language of Friday khutbah: Arabic (w/translation). Imam & Director/President: Sheikh Qaid. And regarding that mosque and its congregants, it must be mentioned that they generally speaking have improved the moral tone of the neighborhood - which is known for prostitution (both genders, and both transgenders), inebriation, and public displays of procreation, plus both partner and substance abuse. It is a lively little part of town.]


We (that being myself and five others) arrived at quarter to five with our Israeli and American flags, and it was already apparent that our side was vastly outnumbered, also that the police had lost control of the situation. The SFPD wanted to keep both sides apart. They failed utterly to do so. The anti-Israel mob occupied all of the street on the consulate side, and most of the other side of the street as well. Our people were surrounded on all sides, scattered in clumps among the screaming masses of anti-Israel activists, Muslims, and generally hate-filled opportunists. Several times the jostling and elbowing threatened to turn violent.

The cops' main focus had devolved to preventing angry confrontata from turning into active bloodshed, OR windows being broken. Nose to nose screaming matches, pushing and shoving - all fine, as long as it did not lead to punches, flying objects, shattered glass.

The SFPD actually achieved both of those humble aims, though they did not achieve anything else. They did not want to wade in to physically separate the sides, probably because of the danger that the Arab-Americans or ANSWER members would go feral.

[Besides, Jews can take care of themselves - as one bloated red-faced woman's sign said, one dead Jew means 300 dead Palestinians, and we were not even outnumbered thirty to one.]

Two hours of angry rioting and threats of death, plus several incidents that could have become bloody, do not leave me with any positive appreciation of the pro-Palestinian side. Which includes Bay Area Women in Black, Jewish Voice for Peace, Students for Justice in Palestine, and International ANSWER, in addition to agitators bused in from San Jose (South Bay Mobilization), Marin, and various heathenish pig-butt boondocks.



SLOGANS

The anti-Israel side had one slogan in English, and several more in Arabic.

The English-language slogan: "Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea" - which frankly states the intent to destroy the Jewish state and ethnically cleanse the land.

The Arabic slogans: "Itbach al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews), "Falastin balad'na w'al Yahud qalab'na" (Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs), "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Falastin" (with our soul, with our blood, we will cleanse you oh Palestine), "al mawt al Yahud" (death to the Jews), "Khaybar Khaybar ya Yahud, jaish-Muhammad saya'ud" (Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return).

[That last slogan refers to the battle of Khaybar where the prophet Muhammad opportunistically attacked and slaughtered the Jews who had been hospitable to another Arab tribe. The subsequent sacking of Khaybar by Muhammad's forces re-energized the brigands who had flocked to his cause, and persuaded several Bedouin tribes to join Muhammad's forces in hopes of fun and profit.]


While the Arabs screamed their desire to exterminate Jews, the English-monolingualists simply stood there happily smiling their approbation. The correct pronunciation may have been beyond them, but they approved of the sentiment. Which is proven by their resolute continued presence and solidarity.
No, they do NOT have plausible deniability - the 'river to the sea' slogan shows that they wish for a genocide against Israel, and translations of the Arabic slogans have been provided so many times that they cannot claim ignorance of the meanings.
Besides, the angry Middle-Eastern Jew-hater with a bullhorn, and the rabid white chick with an equally loud bullhorn and a grating voice, made plain in great detail what the peace movement's plan for Israel and the Jews entails, as did the numerous threats and insults directed at our side by both Arabs and Anglos.


Bay Area Women in Black, in particular, should be ashamed of themselves - we know that they read our material, and they've stood side-by-side with Arabs making the Nazi salute at many other events where promises of death and destruction were chanted by the masses (hello Ron/Ralph Berg, this means you).
JVP, seeing as it has a number of not-entirely-clued-in individuals, is perhaps excusable - their familiarity with Judaism and Hebrew is that poor that they cannot possibly be expected to have any greater facility with Arabic, and they are somewhat slow besides.


At about twenty to seven PM, the vast mob headed down Montgomery Street towards Market, obediently tailed by the SFPD, worried that windows might be broken or garbage cans overturned if they were not there to keep order. Quiet returned to a street filled with ripped signs and splintered poles, and Israeli and American flags were carefully rolled up, ready for the next lovefest.



FINAL NOTE: On our side, maybe as many as ten percent (but maybe not even five percent) were not Jewish. On the anti-Israel side, despite the huge number of politically correct Jews there, at least eighty percent were Gentile, of whom about half were not Arab. This tells me that Jews cannot rely on the Gentile world for safety and justice - there just aren't very many people who give a damn about the Jews.
But you already knew that, didn't you?

One more time: 120 to 3000. Twenty five to one. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers - the few, the proud, the Jew Faggots.
I love you guys.

TWENTY FIVE MILES OR LESS

Fascinating facts from a newspaper article.


Since 2001, there have been 3,984 rockets and 3,943 mortar shells launched at Israel from Gaza.
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/29/MNHF150KHB.DTL
[cut]
Egypt brokered a truce that took effect in June, but since then, Palestinians still fired 223 rockets and 139 mortar shells from the Hamas-controlled enclave.
[cut]
The Palestinian death toll continued to climb on Monday, yet Hamas still managed to pour rocket fire on Israeli cities such as Ashdod, more than 20 miles to the north of the Gaza Strip, bringing a million Israelis within range of the fighting.


What that last part means is that any Israeli living twenty five miles or less from a Palestinian is probably in danger. As good an argument for imposing a twenty five mile wide no-mans land as any I've seen.

MESSAGE FROM SF VOICE FOR ISRAEL

What: Counter Protest in Support of Israel
Where: Israeli Consulate – 456 Montgomery Street, San Francisco
When: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - 4:45pm


Dear Friends,

Israel is taking care of business in Gaza, and it is upon us to watch her back, here, on the streets of San Francisco. As we have seen from recent events in the region, PR war is a big part of this conflict, and "the streets" is where it’s fought, and no one will fight it but us.


Under the camouflage of "Peace Movement", the haters and the misguided will be holding a demonstration in front of the Israeli Consulate to protest the "Holocaust in Gaza". We ask, where were they for 3 years to "stand for peace" when Israelis were being bombed, killed and injured? We ask why are the fair-minded supporters of Palestinians not outraged by Hamas’s continuous provocations which clearly led to this defensive action, by its human shields tactics, and by its complete disregard for human life, both Israeli and Palestinian? We ask, what would United States, Turkey, Russia or China do, if 750,000 of its citizens were under constant cross-border shelling? We ask the questions that are at the heart of this conflict, the ones that no-one will ask if we are not there!

So be there, with your own questions and answers, and flags and energy, to show by our solid presence our unwavering solidarity with the Jewish State.


For signs to support Israel, please go to:
http://www.standwithus.com/SIGNS/?type=focus&wc=39
And
http://www.standwithus.com/SIGNS/?type=focus&wc=21

These posters are ready to send to your local printer. Please bring your own flags and signs, we have limited resources for this event.


Be the San Francisco Voice for Israel!



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.

DAMNING ISRAEL

Reading the Dutch, German, French, and English news sites and forums today highlighted three tendencies regarding reactions and thoughts about Israel's action in Gaza. These tendencies already existed, of course, but have been more sharply drawn in the last seventy-two plus hours.


The Pro-Israel no-matter-what tendency
The writer damns all Muslims, Palestinians, Socialists, and self-hating Europeans, while lauding the actions of Israel in Gaza.
This is distinctly a minority point of view.


The Nuanced Point of View
This person tends to understand that Hamas broke their own ceasefire, has sworn to destroy Israel, and provoked the conflict by firing off over two hundred rockets towards Israeli towns. Nevertheless, civilian deaths are lamented, and question are raised. The writer is not comfortable with adding to the misery of the average Arab.
This too is a minority point of view.


The angry Anti-Israel Opinion
These writers thoroughly condemn everything that Israel does, lament the misery of Palestinian existence, curse their own governments for doing nothing, and fervently wish ill upon Israel, the Jews, and anybody who takes the side of either Israel or the Jews. Many of these writers are anti-Semitic, but assert that being anti-Israel is not actual hatred. They are not overt bigots, as they (mostly) stay within the bounds of acceptable 'progressive' discourse.
This is the overwhelming majority point of view.



Digesting it all
What became apparent, reading the various sites, is just how much Israel is hated. To a certain extent, I can understand Arab hatred of Jews and Israel - Arabs hate everything and everybody. It seems to be part and parcel of their culture. They've killed over seven million of their own in the last sixty years, and almost instinctively speak ill of each other or sabotage their own causes.
I expect no better from that side. And I'll admit it, I am probably a racist because I expect nothing else from them. For which I apologize - I honestly cannot hold them to the same high standard as the civilized world. I am a realist.

I can also understand European hatred of Jews and Israel. After all, to many Europeans, the very survival of Jews proves them wrong. Their attempts to exterminate the Jews did not succeed, their attempts to force them to convert en-masse to Christianity or Communism failed. There are still Jews. It must be keenly disappointing to have those people still around as a reminder of the failure of European society.

Life would be so much simpler for both the Arabs and the Europeans, if there were no Jews. The Arabs could slowly destroy European society, the Europeans could profit enormously from whoring to the Arabs in the meantime. Benefit to both sides.

The Jews, especially in the shape of Israel, are the fly in the ointment. And so Israel taking action against Hamas, is of course, an affront to both many Europeans and to Arabs.
Which must be thoroughly condemned.


What I have never understood is why parts of America, in particular Northern California, are so filled with Jew-hatred. Places such as San Francisco State University and the University of California at Berkeley. Heck, I cannot fathom why Berkeley is the most Jew-hating city in all of California. It would appear that our universities inculcate a very European attitude, and deliberately undermine our society's values.
I fully expect the next domestic terrorist movement to originate in academe.



AFTERTHOUGHT
I find myself in-between the first and second tendencies. I recognize that Israel had to act, I find what they are engaged upon justified, and I applaud their successes. Granted, as a society, Israel is by no means perfect. And ideally it should be possible for any society to speak for all of its members. But in the real world, societies are not always capable of giving all goals and values equal importance. To Israel's credit, she tries. And often succeeds in advancing the interests of a large majority of her citizens. Israel does so as the only democratic state in that area, and the only liberal humanist society in the Middle-East.

That, unfortunately, is something that not a single one of the Arab states have ever done, and also something which almost none of the Arab states can even lay claim to ever trying.


The one great contribution to our vocabulary from the Arabs in modern times has been 'mukhabarat' - a term for a secret police that functions with extraordinary brutality. It is the one constant shared by all Arab states, and frequently the only efficient department in an Arab government.

PROTEST IN AMSTERDAM AGAINST ISRAELI ACTION

As was to be expected, there have been anti-Israel demonstrations in various spots worldwide since the beginning of the Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Not only in the usual places - Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt - but also in the Western World.


Places such as Amsterdam.
[Oh wait, that IS one of the usual places.]


Article in the Algemeen Dagblad:
http://www.ad.nl/binnenland/2873589/Demonstratie_op_de_Dam_tegen_aanvallen_Isral.html
[In Dutch. Synopsis: Roughly two hundred people demonstrate against Israel on the Dam in Amsterdam in a protest organized by the Netherlands-Palestine Committee, with torches and signs.]


Not satisfied with the wholesale deportation of Jews during the German occupation, as facilitated by the percentage-wise largest collaborationist faction in Europe - the wholesale betrayal and sale to the occupiers of as many Jews as possible - the verstokte and verkrampte bigots of the lowlands now encourage the Arabs to pursue their racist war against Israel and the Jews with all vigour. They cheer the murderous success of the umma, and keenly desire Jewish deaths in Sderot and Tel Aviv.

One would've thought that five centuries of grudging Dutch tolerance, preceded by the total extermination of Jews in Brabant, Flanders, and Gelre during the late middle-ages, and followed by the mass betrayals of the Second World War, would make these people too ashamed to voice such sentiments.

No.
The modern Dutchman, like his ancestors, is convinced of his own righteousness, and equally convinced of the fundamental evil of the Jew. This lies at the heart of Dutch popular religion - both the Catholicism and Calvinism of the lowlands. It is an ancient atavistic hatred of outsiders, of which the Jew is the prime example.

If his educated modern mind tells him that discriminating against Moroccans, Surinamers, and Turks is wrong, today's Dutchman can at least take comfort in despising Jews and wishing for the destruction of Israel.
[It is at once both more 'intellectual', and more abstract - Jews of any type are less than even a quarter percent of Dutch society, whereas the people who think like him are an overwhelming majority, and form his social circle. Hence no one will challenge his praeconceptions, which is what he likes. Disagreement is so very un-Dutch.]


The Netherlands Palestine Committee can be found here:
http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/


It is the usual blathery site that you would expect: high-flown language praising the Palestinians for their peaceloving dignity, while excoriating Jews for their white-supremacist repression of the sensitive artistic natives of the world. There is no mention of the Jew-hatred that lives in the Muslim regions, no mention of the rabid anti-Semitism that thrives on the extremes of European and Arab society, no mention of the Qassam rockets, no mention of the violence perpetrated on a daily basis by Arab upon Arab, and by Muslim against non-Muslim.
Utterly no whisper about the violent provocations by Hamas, the two-facedness of the West-Bank warlord faction, or the stated intent supported by a majority of Mandate Arabs to exterminate the Jews first, then the Christians.
There is only praise for those peaceful pacifists, the sainted leaders of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and kindred organizations.

The usual gang of hate-filled Euro-pond scum (Andries van Agt, Gretta Duizenberg, Anja Meulenbelt, et autres) support the organization.




CODA

There are still civilized Dutchmen, who are balanced and capable of perspective. And perhaps they are the majority. But the tradition of discourse in the Netherlands is ever that such people do not boldly speak out - publicly voiced dissent or alternative points of view may lead to unfortunate consequences. Like excoriation, deportation, or out-casting.

One need not even think of the fate of decent Dutchmen during the war as examples - Jan de Wit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_de_Witt) was torn apart by the right-thinking masses in 1625, Eduard Douwes Dekker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multatuli) spent the last decades of his life in exile. The quiet goodness that lives in Dutch society thrives despite discouragement, but rarely, very rarely, has as strong a voice and as self-righteously enthused an audience as small-minded hatred and hypocrisy.

Which may explain why there are many more people of Dutch ancestry, and Dutch-Jewish ancestry, outside the Netherlands than within. And why the word 'polder model' describes not only management made small, but also minds made dull. These people are incapable of protesting against rockets, bus bombings, or suicide vests. Such things are beyond their ability to comprehend, if not beyond their tendency to relativize.

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

Jawel, beste Nederlandsche lezers, u heeft het gemerkt: soms heb ik gewoon grondig de pest aan ulieden. Niet aan allen, weliswaar, en mischien niet eens de meerderheid. Maar wel degelijk aan uw maatschappij. Mag ik? Sedert mijn voorvader Abraham van Deursen in de zestiendertiger jaren voet aan wal zette in Niew Amsterdam zijn wij een beetje apart gegroeid van het oude kontree. Dat moest ook wel gebeuren, daar ulieden ons en onze toekomst unilateraal overleverden aan de Engelsen. Bijna vier eeuwen apartheid van u en uw gedachtegoed hebben een verschil in denkwijze bezorgd, nog meer zelfs in maatschappelijkheden.
Dat er een grondig verschil in perspektief was heb ik zelf jaren lang kunnen "genieten" als Amerikaans Staatsburger residerend in uw land. Tot die mate dat ik nooit weer de neiging zal hebben in uw gezelschap te vertoeven. Gij allen zijt mij lief; edoch, ik kan met het grootste plezier zonder u.
Stockholm syndroom heb ik allang niet meer, en uwe afwezigheid is mij dierbaar.

THE CANTONESE-AMERICAN FEMALE

Rabbosai, I wish to present, for your general education, a skewed and biased portrait of the Cantonese-American Female.
Having lived with one such for nearly two decades, and having observed the genus for longer than that, I can claim to be an authority on the subject.


There are several characteristics by which the Cantonese-American Female can be recognized.


BOOKS

Cantonese-American Females like literature. Years ago Savage Kitten would lie on the bed laughing maniacally while reading Barbara Cartland and other romance authors. Then she became fascinated with greedy bitches, and read everything she could lay her hands on about Nancy Reagan, Imelda Marcos, and Hollywood gold-diggers. At present she is obsessed with sleazy royal sex - Caroline of Brunswick's lack of hygiene (her petticoats ponged - she changed them once a year whether necessary or not), Henry the Eighth's syphilitic leg-sore (which oozed, stank, and frightened his mistresses), Barbara Villiers (later Duchess of Cleveland) and her raids on the royal treasury as well as the spur of the moment rape of an amazingly limber male carnival performer while she was still the king's mistress (and still married to Roger Palmer, who became Baron of Limerick and Earl of Castlemaine because of her services).
Reading about crazy rich white people is great entertainment.


COUNTING

Unlike many of the modern generation, the typical Cantonese-American Female has a keenly honed mathematical ability. She is able to give exact change, figure out the sales-tax, or keep track of how many times you blinked while surreptitiously ogling her out of the corners of your eyes. She also knows where all of your fingers are at all times. She probably despises calculators.
As far as the passage of time is concerned, however, she may be crippled. She may lament, for instance, that it has been "so very long since I bought any jewelry, so very very long", when it has been less than six days since the last purchase. Or wail that she hasn't had a lobster "in like, for EVER" (two weeks ago).
Or, if it is late, she may astutely observe "we should go to sleep now", then keep you up for hours speculating about important things such as what sauce goes well with roast wombat, or whether her teddy bear (The Head Roomie) is really happy. Banana compote? Is it fatty? Garlic? Hey, is wombat even kosher? Fermented black beans, probably, with rice wine and dark vinegar. And would the teddy bear approve of such a dish? What do you want to eat for dinner tomorrow?


CURSING

Cantonese have a creative vocabulary. Much of which, if literally translated, is not nearly as shocking as a contextually accurate rephrasis.
Locutions that precisely translate as 'salt-fish panties', 'dead eighth spinster', 'return your stinky feet', 'chuck your dried oyster', 'hit your stinky dented whore's head' ....... these are not really transparently blunt.
Salt fish is what the squidgy parts of a clapped-out old slag might smell like, eighth spinster suggests both habitual incest (eight refers to turtles) and unmarriageable-ugly-stupid-vile, the returning of stinky feet has something to do with your parents and their bad genetic stock, dried oyster misnames a part of the female body, and the last one is, I hope, somewhat self-explanatory.
She claims that this is all exaggerated (foul-mouthed, her? Hah forsooth!) and in any case "occupationally acquired Tourettes Syndrome", caused by long exposure to the fine white Christians at the charity at which she used to work.
Apparently middle-aged white Christians are incredibly foul-mouthed, you just wouldn't believe. In Chinese, too. Honestly. Crazy white people.


FOOD

The Cantonese-American Female is food obsessed. You can lure her with lobster, shellfish, steamed fatty seabeast, more lobster, crabs, shrimp, eels, delicious pork products, salty and savoury delicacies, another lobster, noodles, European chocolates, dainties, and rarities..... And, for about one week per month, with buckets of fried chicken and ranch dressing. In that week she will also eat Baco-Corn-Nibbles, Sour Cream and Cheddar Potato Gooblies, Zesty Barbecue flavour Cheez-Poofs, Salty Creamcheese Ripplettes, and Shrimp-Flavour Crispotits. While bemoaning the sudden appearance of a pimple, and the lack of lobster.


FUZZY

If it's fuzzy and it smells nice, it is good. Sock Puppets, Teddy Bears, small furry 'roomies', favourite sweaters, and FuzBert.
What, you may ask, is FuzBert? FuzBert is what comes out of the shower - why she nicknamed my stomach 'FuzBert' is a mystery to me, but it speaks to her. Without my wanting it to. FuzBert, apparently, disagrees with almost everything I say. I have not been able to shut him up.


JEWELRY

Cantonese girls like pretty things. But diamonds, on this case, are NOT a girl's best friend. Pearls, jade, and Mexican Silver Jewelry are.
For that last category, E-bay is Hashem's gift to the Cantonese girl, and the internet site that she visits most often (several times a day, I think). She is particularly fond of little fright-head brooches and pins, and also of period costume jewelry (the craftsmanhship of old pieces is so much better than the crap available nowadays). Pearls, of course, accentuate her pale skin and swan-like neck. And jade is jade. All Chinese like jade.
Diamonds are for ugly old white women with turkey wattles only. Feh.


PANTIES

Finding panties that are all cotton, have a nice pattern or texture, and are THE RIGHT SIZE, is a potent source of joy. Even in San Francisco, most underwear is meant for large white women. Who really wants to wear baggy granma pants? And why are white women's rear ends big as a bucket? These are questions that every Cantonese girl eventually asks, after ending up in the teenage girls department. One is tempted to go shop at Sanrio for Hello-Kitty Panties instead. At least those come in reasonable sizes, rather than pale heffalump huge.


VAMPIRES

Currently half of the female student-body at Lowell High School is reading Twilight, or its sequels and rip-offs. The combination of feeding (see FOOD above), danger, and romance, proves irresistible to Cantonese girls with healthy (although repressed) appetites. Those angular features, steely eyes, and firm chins, oh my! Years ago, the series 'Forever Knight' had a similar appeal, and whispering the name (Geraint Wyn Davies) of the actor who played the vampire Nick Knight into her ear would cause her to blush and squeal. It was magic.
I should point out that the right kind of vampire is white. Black vampires are just funny (remember 'Blacula'?), and Chinese vampires don't have it - they're merely reanimated corpses. But ageless, angular, vulpine or acquiline causasians, so deliciously dangerous..... Oh YES! YES! YES!!!!!!!
Geraint Wyn Davies. Squeal blush twitch.



Of course, for more on the subject of Cantonese-American girls, you could visit one of them here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/

It turns out Cantonese-American girls also have a thing for Hennesy brandy.

See here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/victory-is-mine.html

The culmination of a quest detailed here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/wheres-key.html

Which was begun here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/batteries-not-included.html

A regretful distaste for fiery spirits becomes fortuitously apparent here:
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2008/12/underwear-and-bleary-eyes.html


I am thrilled by the concept of petite Cantonese-American girls brightly redfaced from the merest sip of liquor.
I find my life now strangely enriched.

A SONG OF GRATITUDE FOR THE GIFT OF SOCKS

As per ancient minhag:

Happy Chanukah to me,
Happy Chanuka to me!
Happy Chanuka to all of us......
But especially, to me!


Yes.


Three pairs of socks.


I like socks.

CHOCOLATE

The one redeeming feature of the Trinitarian Festival of Greed™ (T-fog, or Yule in your language) is the surfeit of chocolate. Normally our salesreps send us giftbaskets filled with crackers, nuclear-winter cheese, strange confections, and chocolate. Business friends gift us similarly, as do contacts, clients, customers, and service providers. Baskets, baskets, baskets.


So that means lots of crackers, nuclear-winter cheese, confectionery, and chocolate.


This year's nuclear-winter cheese was actually very interesting. It wasn't the usual nuke-o-tronic Cheddar, coloured hell-orange, and oily-spreadable, that we have received in years past. Instead, something calling itself 'Brie-Product'. From absolutely nowhere near France.
Yes, it had the same caulky texture, and I suspect the surplus that did not get giftbasketed this year will end up weather-proofing houses in Wisconsin. But it was much milder than the electric orange chemi-goo.
Not bad.


I suspect that this is due to the price of oil. They probably had to find a substitute ingredient. Conceivably one based on an edible member of the animal kingdom.
Change is good.


Once the S&M cheese was gone, we moved on to the chocolate-covered raisins and other fruits. I've never understood the concept of chocolate-coating fruit, because it takes mediocre fruits and industrial chocolate that wasn't good enough to stand on its own, and combines them into little chewy fart-pellets that leave sticky shreds between your teeth. Somehow that doesn't seem like a good idea. This year we were overloaded with the chocolate-covered raisins and other fruits. Boruch Hashem for ventilation.


After the downpour of chocolate covered mouse-droppings, we got cakes and bakery products.
Yes, fruitcake.
And cheese-straws.
I now know what some of the surplus Brie-product was used for.


Wisconsin, please find something else to do, you are killing us.


The jar of stone-ground mustard is just baffling. What was the intended purpose? For the cakes? For the cheese-straws? For the chocolate-covered fruits?
And why did every single gift-basket have such a jar?


I'm beginning to think that Savage Kitten is right:
White People Are Goofy!


She's getting chocolate today.
No fruits.

THE OBLIGATORY CHRISTMAS EVE POST

Now that the yuletide smarm has crested, and only the letdown is left (yes, I'm talking about the fact that many people did not get the pricy plastic crap for which they pined), I suppose I should mention what Christmas means to me.


Miserable weather.

Growing up in Valkenswaard (a small burg in the Dutch province of North-Brabant), the Christmas season was always marked by drear, fog, rain, gloom, mist, sleet, howling winds, and influenza.


And midnight mass.


We never went, but we could hear them. Our house was on the south-western corner of the market square, the Saint Nicholas church was diagonally opposite. Sometimes snow would muffle the sound, but more often not. The climate has changed, and the famous wintry vistas of the mediaeval masters have long ceased to be the dominant visual in the Netherlands.


Catholicism in the regions south of the three rivers has long been vestigial, a matter of pride and stubbornness more than anything else (except, of course, for pockets of verkramptheid such as produced that bitter anti-Semite former prime minister Andries van Agt).
Most Catholics remember that their parents and grandparents were more or less second class citizens, in practice barred from high position and public office, and with few avenues for education or advancement.
For two centuries after the eighty year war against Spain the church of Rome was banned, and services were held in secret. For that entire time, the Catholic hierarchy of the Netherlands was subject to Calvinist meddling and sabotage, except in nominally separate territories such as Ravenstein.
The regions of Brabant and Limburg were conquered territories (Generality Lands) administered directly from the Hague, not to be re-incorporated or granted rights until the remainder of both provinces had been freed. Which was not part of the program. Not until the nineteenth century did the Calvinists come to terms with the fact that over one third of the Dutch were, in fact, resolutely not Calvinist.

During that period, Catholicism survived. A stubborn and stunted folk-Catholicism, from the ground up rather than from the top down. Defensive, quiet, and hidden from official view.
Catholic faith flourished in the context of the Schutters Gilden - the militia guilds of the small towns and villages in the Meiery of Den Bosch. Most of the guilds were named after the patron saint of the community, and served as loan society, social safety net, and burial society, in the absence of other organizations. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, members invested generously in guild silver - plaques, beakers, and such like - both as a means of adding glory to their civitat, and to build capital. Many guilds consequently had impressive hoards of silver, the accumulation of generations.


Which, once the Catholic church was legal again, it energetically set about robbing.


The edifice of the church in Brabant and Limburg is founded upon priestly theft and official connivance.


One can perhaps understand why when the Pope visited the Netherlands, security precautions had to be better than when Hirohito came. Historically, the natives have a bone to pick. Rome betrayed them in the fifteen hundreds, in the sixteen hundreds, in the eighteen hundreds, and in the nineteen hundreds. And denied that they existed during the seventeen hundreds.
There is a history there.


The guilds still flourish, and still serve as the focus of much civic life. They have again amassed silver. The pride in Outer en Heerd (altar and hearth - the two fundaments of small town identity) is stronger than ever. The men of the guilds, on the feast-days of their patron saint still march into THEIR church, with their antiquated weapons and their banners, to the rolling thunder of war drums. It is truly a stirring spectacle.

It might be the only time many of them have actually been there that year.

They dislike the priest, regard the church functionaries as leeches, and genuinely despise the entire foreign branch of the church as thieves, meddlers, and arrogant busybodies.

But on Christmas eve, as per ancient custom, they will once more go to church. And utterly diminish whatever message the padre chose to deliver with the glory of their singing.