Ex-Israel head faces rape charge

This was the headline on BBC site today. A bit of an exaggeration here. Israeli president is rather a figurehead, mainly a ceremonial job.

Unless they mean something else... oh well.

P.S. CNN were more precise this time.

Haveil Havalim 207: A very TRS HH

TRS - The Real Shliach, who promises to bring us all closer to our father in Heaven, produced a great edition of Havel Havalim. I already feel a bit closer. Read it, so you can feel it too.

The joke of the week.

This.

Charles Freeman - Barack Obama owes America an explanation

Just because the Hezbollah blew up a few marines in Lebanon is no reason to hold a grudge, right? And just because Hamas insists that it wants to wipe out every Jew on the planet, that's no reason to slight them either, correct? And the demonstrations with huge crowds chanting "Death to America" are no reason to hurt these wonderful Islamic gentlemen either, are they?

This and more in the article by Ami Isseroff.

Fat Duck restaurant mystery unveiled

It is easily found between the lines in this CNN article.

As many as 400 people may have gotten sick after eating at a renowned Michelin-starred restaurant in England, health authorities said Friday. The Health Protection Agency is investigating an outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting among diners...

And the reason is:

The Fat Duck is renowned for such eccentric items as snail porridge, salmon poached in licorice gel, and scrambled egg and bacon ice cream.

Have to run, sorry...

Holy book - not just an instrument, after all

Warning: personal disjointed rambling, of necessity offensive to all religious people.

נכתב ביום חול, פורסם מראש בים חול

No one, myself included, could learn anything useful from my personal cursory study of The Book with an immediate bout of amnesia as a follow-up . Some bits and pieces of interest still remain, obviously, this is why this post on Norm's place caused me a second take. Another reason was that Yaacov Lozowick also posted on the same subject. Talk about coincidences...

The post on Norm's is not by himself - it is by Matthew Kramer, Professor of Legal and Political Philosophy, Churchill College, Cambridge, but it is (almost) just as good. And here, probably, comes the real reason for my post here: self-gratification. Because of this passage:

One's awareness of those shortcomings can temper one's criticism of other religions. Consider, for example, the current propensity of Muslim extremists in various parts of the world to engage in murderous mayhem. On the one hand, the claim that their evil acts of carnage have nothing to do with Islam is simplistic at best. Anyone who has perused the Koran with intellectual honesty will be aware of the hideous passages on which the Islamist fanatics can and do seize in order to 'justify' their terrorism. On the other hand, the perception of a basic divide between the Koran and the Bible in this respect is likewise simplistic. The Bible teems with as many ghastly passages as the Koran. It lends itself to being cited in support of iniquities just as readily as does the Koran. Hence, given that there are no grounds for thinking that the sacred texts of Christianity and Judaism are indissolubly linked to terrorism, there are no grounds for any corresponding accusation against the sacred texts of Islam. An acquaintance with the Bible enables one to recognize this point clearly.

Bingo, as my Yank friends will say. I have always believed that any holy book in the hands of a skillful murderous demagogue could serve as an excellent tool for stoking many kinds of hate, many forms of mayhem and for stocking a veritable supermarket of bigotry.

But this is not the only use for a holy book, of course. In other hands, in other times it could be a used for a totally opposite purpose, I am more than sure. It is just that this versatility of the holy books makes them more dangerous than any WMD, in my humble opinion. Much more accessible to the knaves, tyrants and murderers, too.

What else? Critically taken, the Bible provides a lot of surprisingly precise historical information, while the opposite could be said at the same time - blind belief in everything written in The Book causes another kind of blindness.

And it will be a grave omission to forget the beauty of many passages and the poetry. Says Matthew Kramer:

Much of the Bible's poetry (in Job, quite a few of the Psalms, Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and so forth) is among the finest produced in any language.

I suggest that a person who never used a passage or two from the Song of Songs to woo a girl cannot be called a real man. In this regard a funny soundbite on the Song of Songs from Bartleby:

This poem describes the joy and ecstasy of love. It has been understood both as a picture of God's love for Israel and of Christ's love for the Church.

Yeah, sure, you can say it again. Saying it again wouldn't make any difference. I don't remember the precise details of the circumstances when I've used the Song quotes on the ladies, focused as I was on other issues at the moment, but I can bet anything that the love for Israel didn't play a significant part in the proceedings. Even if the mount Gilead or tower of David were mentioned...

And, of course, no Russian speaker can remain indifferent to this:

In Deuteronomy 8:3 and in Matthew's and Luke's gospels (with Christ's response to the first temptation), we encounter the aphorism 'Man does not live by bread alone'. In the present day, that maxim is almost universally taken to mean that bread is necessary but not sufficient for human flourishing. In its original Biblical context, by contrast, the maxim means that bread is sufficient but not necessary for human flourishing. (In Deuteronomy, bread was unnecessary because God sent manna instead; in the gospels, bread was unnecessary because Christ was able to survive on purely spiritual sustenance.)

"Не хлебом единым ссыт человек". Indeed...

So, all in all - yes, The Book is not just an instrument for unscrupulous, it is much much more.

Oh, almost forgot - learned another word thanks to Professor Kramer: "rebarbative". Useful. Take heed, some of you out there.

Some Zionist cats for you

Well, partly Zionist. Enjoy (speakers on, please).



Via Rahel.

Durban II and CiF luminaries

I confess I am visiting CiF in order to get a positive charge by reading a few comments by its regulars. This time it's Not Durban all over again article by Benjamin Pogrund.

And the winner of the stainhood medal for March 2009 is a person goes under the moniker of JosephPorta for his brilliant deduction:

Israel is now unmasked as being ruled by Zionists who have a particular agenda.

Here you go, Joseph:

So who are you, Pinky the dolphin?

This amazing critter could be observed in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, north of the Gulf of Mexico in southwestern USA. Boffins' claim that Pinky is an albino doesn't change the incontrovertible fact: Pinky, as its name suggests, is plainly pink.

A worrying question, though: since pink dolphins are known to inhabit Chinese waters, couldn't Pinky be an agent of a foreign power? Dolphins could be naughty if they put their minds to it, you know.

Another interesting question, seeing as Pinky is swimming in Cajun land: does a pink dolphin taste differently from its regularly colored fellows? It's a purely theoretical question, mind you, dear vegetarians, before you jump on my throat.

Tee hee...

Somebody, pick me up from the floor!

Iran, the Jews and Roger Cohen

This is a slight modification of the NYT headline Iran, the Jews and Germany, an article by Roger Cohen.

In that article Roger Cohen, NYT op-ed columnist, tries to answer his many critics regarding his series of apologetic articles on Iran. Soccer Dad has dealt with one of these articles - The other Iran - in his post Apologist for the mullahs, which easily made a mincemeat of the article and the author.

In Iran, the Jews and Germany Roger Cohen makes an effort to backpedal (somewhat clumsily) from some of his stronger sentiments in the previous articles. Well, the "flawed but vibrant democracy" is muted a bit by "Iran is an un-free society with a keen, intermittently brutal apparatus of repression, but it’s far from meeting these criteria [of a totalitarian state]". Things like this, a bit of glossing over some too obvious signs of adoration.

No attempt, however, was made by Mr Cohen to gloss over another, more pernicious statement: "Iran has not waged a war of aggression for a very long time." Of course, wishful thinker like Cohen can't allow himself and errant thought about the terrorist bombings in Argentina. Or about the unending flow of weapons to Hezbollah - the cancer on the Lebanon's body. Or about incessant military support of Hamas. Or about fomenting unrest in Iraq with willing assistance of Shia clerics... the list could go on and on, and why should Iran wage a war of aggression by its own lily-white hands? To cause unneeded wrath of Roger Cohen?

Another clumsy attempt at backpedaling - in a different direction, though, becomes clear when you compare the last article's passage:

If you’re thinking trains-on-time Fascist efficiency, think again. Tehran’s new telecommunications tower took 20 years to build. I was told its restaurant would open “soon.” So, it is said, will the Bushehr nuclear power plant, a project in the works for a mere 30 years. A Persian Chernobyl is more likely than some Middle Eastern nuclear Armageddon, if that’s any comfort.

where Cohen assuages the worry about Iran's nuclear aspirations, with an older article's statement:

The Iranian nuclear program, which Iran implausibly says is for civilian purposes, is “the greatest challenge” now facing 21st-century leaders.

Clumsy as heck, but whatever works...

So what is it Mr Cohen (assaJew, mind you, he wouldn't let you forget) trying to say in his latest article about Iran and its Jews?

• Iran is un-free society - check
• It is managed by a virtual dictatorship of one Khamenei - check
• Its mouthpiece "president" is most active Holocaust denier in the world - check
• The fanaticism does exist - check
• The threats to annihilate Israel are issued - check
• Life in Iran is more difficult for Jews than for Muslims - check
• The nuclear development is clearly not for peace - check

But:

• The air you breathe in Iran is not suffocating!
• Ahmadinejad's rival in the next presidential elections, Mohammad Khatami, once spoke in a synagogue!
• Anything but mad, the mullahs have proved malleable!
• Internet and satellite television is widespread, the BBC’s new Farsi service is all the rage!
• Iranians are not cut off, like Cubans or North Koreans!

The last but not the least:

• No fire has burned the Majlis, or parliament, down!

Ergo:

Iran’s Islamic Republic is no Third Reich redux!

Please don't laugh, because really Mr Cohen is motivated by an essentially overwhelming force, the one beautifully expressed in this paragraph:

One Iranian exile, no lover of the Islamic Republic, wrote to me saying that my account of Iran’s Jews had brought “tears to my eyes” because “you are saying what many of us would like to hear.”

Dear Iranian exile: Mr Cohen indeed performs a great service to many people: he just tells them (and himself) what they (and he) want to hear. It is so simple... and so pathetic.

And, to my sorrow, Mr Cohen in his naivety (?) reminds me too strongly about the uncountable fellow travelers from the West visiting Soviet Union during Stalin's time and bringing back the usual laudatory reports. While people were incarcerated and died in droves.

But could Roger Cohen, a journalist of such caliber, achievements and standing, be so naive? Well, it's another can of worms I really don't wish to open. No, sir...

Afterword: Stumbled on this accidentally on Soob (thanks Jay):

Notice the source. Apparently the mention of Germany by Mr Cohen was relevant, after all...

Cross-posted on Yourish.com.

Green bullets?

According to CNN, in a few years "lead poisoning" will mean only what it means in medical journals.

Lead, a toxic metal that can lower the IQs of children, is the essential element in most ammunition on the market today. But greener alternatives are gaining visibility -- and stirring controversy -- as some hunters, scientists, environmentalists and public health officials worry about lead ammunition's threat to the environment and public health.

What next? Probably a prohibition on smoking near that deer you have felled with a green bullet.

And no swearing, of course, not to speak of consumption of alcohol that causes mental anguish to the said deer and complications during pregnancy...

Israeli admiral and biased BBC

Wanna some proof (or, rather, some troof) that BBC is biased? Here it is:

The commander of the Israeli navy has apologised in a letter to the military chief of staff after being spotted in a strip club in Tel Aviv.

Apologized my foot! He just passed some juicy details, like in:

...he had been smoking a cigar, drinking alcohol and surrounded by bare-chested women.

It is not for nothing that CoS salutes him in this picture:

Yeah, well, anyway, where is the freakin Balen report?

Just a cat in a bong or a recipe for world peace?

A man who stuffed his girlfriend's cat into a makeshift bong and smoked marijuana through it said Tuesday that he had done it on other occasions and that it calmed the cat down.

Here is the bong:

And here is the man:

The cat's picture is not available, but I bet that after the treatment he looks exactly like the man above.

And I have to say that the man should be awarded - to the tune of the Nobel peace prize - for his brilliant idea. If only a bong could be built for the whole Middle East, I am sure our problems will be soon forgotten.

Peace, dudes...

Tired of the sandstorms?

Bothered by the heat?

Unnerved by humidity?

Local insects seem to be too obnoxious?

No worries, check out this alternative (Norway):

Now imagine yourself with your spouse, your kids and your pets (all of whom you adore unquestionably and devotedly), snowed in together in that beautiful landscape.

For a day.

Then for a week.

Then for a month...

Mmm... enough?