What can anyone say. The Pope screwed up. Only a leader embedded n the self-satisfying, closed world of the Papacy (or the White House) could make such a mistake. Jihad is all too real, but the Prophet did not preach the doctrines of conversion by the sword cited by the Emperor and quoted by the Pope.. True, Gregory MEANT the Emperor's speech as an example of what NOT to say. Yet ... given the bloody history of the Chair of Peter, it would have been better if he picked an example closer to home. How about citing the antisemitism of Pius IX ... or is he waiting until this evil man is canonized?
Yet, how does anything the coddled white guy said justify the Muslim rage? Does anyone in the rational world think the Pope meant to insult the Muslims? Is there NOONE amongst the callous headed worshipers of Allah willing to defend the intent of the Holy Father? If the US Muslim world is so moderate, where are they now???
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
span.fullpost {display:none;}
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Thehim
"The him" is the nom de web of Lee Rosenberg, a self announced liberal, employed in the software industry, and generally rationally liberal. Thehe is married to theher and edits a Blog.
I recommend Lee's blog for an occasional well done essay on plotics. he can be thoughtful and often is knowledgeable. Except when it comes to one thing. Somehow, Lee has a serious aversion to ethnicity.
This all started out with a diatribe he wrote about my comments about the Quran and Muslim teachings. Like some 60's kid yelling on the street, he accused me of all sorts of evil thoughts. No effort to reassure him that I was smart enough to distinguish the bad from the good, would help. To make matters worse, when he writes about me Lee seems to acquire coprolalia (another word for Tourette's syndrome, an illness where people spout obscenities for no apprarent reason).
Why me? Lee apparently resents my being openly Jewish. As matters progressed, it turns out that Lee has some sort of a problem with Jews, at least Jews who think being Jewish is different form not being Jewish. He identifies himself as being of "Jewish roots" but then spouts forth, for no apparent reason, and becomes defensive about his being intermarried and never having had a bar mitzvah. I would feel badly if I had ever said anything critical about these issues but it sseems to have arisen with thehim himself. I care no more about thehim's roots than Id about Madeline Albright's.
My guess is that Lee is a self conscious Jew who has, unfortunately, assimilated a lot of the subtle antisemitism that refuses to distinguish Jewish identity and pride from arrogance, ethnic superiority, and ...yes .. racism. All this from someone who claims (I find this hard to believe) to know nothing whatsoever about Judaism. I told him how proud I am of all the Nobel's we have won and he, of course, got angry and disparaged me for believing the Jewish heritage had anything to do with all this.
To compound all the criticizes ethnicity of the Jews as "tribalism," that classical Eurocentric distinction between "our" nations and the primitive folk's "tribes"." As in .. "It is unfortunate that the Nigerians can not rise above tribalism." Tell that to my Ibo classmate! Now, now ,, the quote is not from Lee, but it is the kind of racist clap Eurocentric folks say all the time.
The latest contre-temps came when he started swearing at me for expressing my respect for our County Executive, Ron Sims. Ron is a Black politician in the best sense. He is a role;e model for Black kids and has worked hard, when he was a local rep, to help the black community. He speaks movingly of the role his origins, church and culture, have had in shaping his career. He is a proud, successful Black man. But, not to The he. The he wants to rob Ron and the Black community of any pride but that of coming from a good home.
Of course, like all Eurocentrics, he is blind to the fact that his culture is a dominating culture. By denying Ron's ethnic origins, Lee is, in effect saying that the only good society is the he's own. Lee's predecessors are the very people who did so much damage to the cultures of the people's of Puget Sound.
Take a look at his Blog for more. The good part is that he has a lot of good things to say on other issues. But don;t call him a Jew, he might consider that an insult.
I recommend Lee's blog for an occasional well done essay on plotics. he can be thoughtful and often is knowledgeable. Except when it comes to one thing. Somehow, Lee has a serious aversion to ethnicity.
This all started out with a diatribe he wrote about my comments about the Quran and Muslim teachings. Like some 60's kid yelling on the street, he accused me of all sorts of evil thoughts. No effort to reassure him that I was smart enough to distinguish the bad from the good, would help. To make matters worse, when he writes about me Lee seems to acquire coprolalia (another word for Tourette's syndrome, an illness where people spout obscenities for no apprarent reason).
Why me? Lee apparently resents my being openly Jewish. As matters progressed, it turns out that Lee has some sort of a problem with Jews, at least Jews who think being Jewish is different form not being Jewish. He identifies himself as being of "Jewish roots" but then spouts forth, for no apparent reason, and becomes defensive about his being intermarried and never having had a bar mitzvah. I would feel badly if I had ever said anything critical about these issues but it sseems to have arisen with thehim himself. I care no more about thehim's roots than Id about Madeline Albright's.
My guess is that Lee is a self conscious Jew who has, unfortunately, assimilated a lot of the subtle antisemitism that refuses to distinguish Jewish identity and pride from arrogance, ethnic superiority, and ...yes .. racism. All this from someone who claims (I find this hard to believe) to know nothing whatsoever about Judaism. I told him how proud I am of all the Nobel's we have won and he, of course, got angry and disparaged me for believing the Jewish heritage had anything to do with all this.
To compound all the criticizes ethnicity of the Jews as "tribalism," that classical Eurocentric distinction between "our" nations and the primitive folk's "tribes"." As in .. "It is unfortunate that the Nigerians can not rise above tribalism." Tell that to my Ibo classmate! Now, now ,, the quote is not from Lee, but it is the kind of racist clap Eurocentric folks say all the time.
The latest contre-temps came when he started swearing at me for expressing my respect for our County Executive, Ron Sims. Ron is a Black politician in the best sense. He is a role;e model for Black kids and has worked hard, when he was a local rep, to help the black community. He speaks movingly of the role his origins, church and culture, have had in shaping his career. He is a proud, successful Black man. But, not to The he. The he wants to rob Ron and the Black community of any pride but that of coming from a good home.
Of course, like all Eurocentrics, he is blind to the fact that his culture is a dominating culture. By denying Ron's ethnic origins, Lee is, in effect saying that the only good society is the he's own. Lee's predecessors are the very people who did so much damage to the cultures of the people's of Puget Sound.
Take a look at his Blog for more. The good part is that he has a lot of good things to say on other issues. But don;t call him a Jew, he might consider that an insult.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
The Brother Faith is Dying
An article in today's NY Times predicts that Zorastrianism is dieing.
Zorastrianism is Judaism's not so secret lover. We once lived together in Noble Persia and much of modern Judaism grew from that contact ... angels, the devil, ... maybe even the tradition of milk and meat.
We, along with others of that 2500 years away world, benfited from this religion and this peole's tolerance.
Now, without the blood stained Holocaust, the religion of the fire is near death. Like Jews, Zorastrians are kept people in Iran .. their ancient home. Not allowed to control their own schools or live as equalas, the Zorastrians are leaving, intermarrying and just dieing.
Of course the Zorastrians have fled ... to the US, a country that owes much to ancient Persian tolerance. The Jesus story has dep roots in Zoraster's teachings.
But Islam's tolerance is not very supportive of this people of the book. It si ahrd to tell yor kids that they should remain in the people, marry in the people, when the reuslt is dhimmihood.
In the outside world, this tolerant religon is dieing through acculturation. Like the spotted owl, the last Zorastrian may have been borne already.
The great work of their prophet, Zoroaster still rings with the sounds of cows and the holy fire. A religon wiht a hisotry of tolerance .. may soon be gone.
Zorastrianism is Judaism's not so secret lover. We once lived together in Noble Persia and much of modern Judaism grew from that contact ... angels, the devil, ... maybe even the tradition of milk and meat.
We, along with others of that 2500 years away world, benfited from this religion and this peole's tolerance.
Now, without the blood stained Holocaust, the religion of the fire is near death. Like Jews, Zorastrians are kept people in Iran .. their ancient home. Not allowed to control their own schools or live as equalas, the Zorastrians are leaving, intermarrying and just dieing.
Of course the Zorastrians have fled ... to the US, a country that owes much to ancient Persian tolerance. The Jesus story has dep roots in Zoraster's teachings.
But Islam's tolerance is not very supportive of this people of the book. It si ahrd to tell yor kids that they should remain in the people, marry in the people, when the reuslt is dhimmihood.
In the outside world, this tolerant religon is dieing through acculturation. Like the spotted owl, the last Zorastrian may have been borne already.
The great work of their prophet, Zoroaster still rings with the sounds of cows and the holy fire. A religon wiht a hisotry of tolerance .. may soon be gone.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
The Jew, the toilet seat and the shicksa?
Over at Horses' Ass, Goldy has started a thread offering advice to anyone interested in Judaism.
Apparently the important credentials are that David Goldstein is secular (I guess that means he does not want to be considered a Jew by belief) and he was married to a Roman Catholic woman. Somehow, this is mixed up with his living near two orthodox shuls and his wife's wanting the toilet seat put down.
Not exactly impressive. What does Judaism or intermarriage have to do with anatomic issues like peeing forward vs downward?? Which is Jewish?
Anyhow, Goldy posts a Seinfeldesque self doubting pose. Kinda like imagining Dr. King dismissing his fervor as the product of eating too much watermelon. Can anyone imaging Cesar Chavez w/o the church? Imagine Kennedy w/o catholicism or Bushie w/o his identity. Why can't Jewish liberals just accept the Jewish liberal tradition? Jews can't be proud of Gompers? BTW, while his wife is described as Roman Catholic, Goldy never tells us if she was secular too? Are there secular Catholics or just lapsed Catholics vs secular Jews?
The remarks are followed n the comments threads by the chorus of a few choir members, assuredly goyische choir members, who applaud the Jew for the remarks .. rather condescending that bit, well it is hard to be nice.
"Hey look .. isn't the Jew funneee? He makes fun of himself!!"
OK OK .. we all need to make fun of ourselves, but do we need praise from others for doing so?? Goldy is a good guy and it would interest me more to know what part of that goodness came from Judaism, but then I am Jew. Maybe the goyem don't care what we have to offer?
Instead of sharing with others the part of Goldy that is Jewish, it is politically correct to turned that into a self deprecating joke.
Sad, you want a funny Catholics/Jews story?
Patrick and Sam grew up on neighboring streets. One went to parochial school while the other attended public school but the two remained lifelong friends. Beside public school, Sam went to Hebrew school and found that he enjoyed very much. Soon after Sam's bar mitzvah, the two boys decided to follow a common path .. Pat would become a priest and Sam a Rabbi. They vowed to remain friends.
Both did very well. Soon they each had a suburban congregation. They co-chaired the Catholic-Jewish civil action group and even hosted visiting Southern Baptists. After awhile, however, Pat was recognized by the church and became a bishop. Sam married, had two kids and wrote a book about a Jewish guy married to a catholic girl from Seattle. The book became a TV show and Sam was very famous.
Pat's career progressed too ... soon he became the Archbishop. The consecration and beautiful robes thrilled Sam, but it was still, after all just Pat. IN the meantime Sam's congregation was fine and even provided a Buick for their popular rabbi. Sam wasn't jealous at all of the large manor house that Patrick occupied.
Then Patrick was called to Rome for a red hat. Pat invited his Jewish friend but Sam couldn't go ... after all it was high holiday season. When the new cardinal came back, he invited the Rabbi to dinner. The joked about Rome and the aging Pope, and then Patrick asked, " Just think, if we had just switched houses 50 years ago, you could've become the cardinal!" Sam laughed. "And then? no wife, no kids! Patrick, all you have is your church." Patrick wrapped his cape a bit closer, a bit chilled by Sam's remark. "But then, look it is possible that when this Pope passes on I could become the Pope. I could have the power of the entire church!" The Cardinal smiled and sipped at his sherry. There was tension in the room. But Sam looked at his friend and said " and so? You get a white hat! Big deal." Patrick was mad. "You are just jealous! What more could anyone achieve, becoming God?"
Sam turned to him and said, "It happend once before!."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
