Tonight’s featured amusement en route to the Tips thread is a three-for-one soul music cover-song extravaganza as performed by four fictional brothers – “non-identical quadruplets” – who turned their musically-confusing uprootedness (they were born in the deep South before being hauled off to Detroit, the home of Motown and soul music) into a humorously mixed-up style of music.
From their 1993 album Into The Twangy-First Century, here are the Burns Brothers, aka Run C&W, performing a three-song soul music Medley consisting of Ray Charles’ What’d I Say, Stevie Wonder’s Superstition, and – my favourite part – Diana Ross and the Supremes’ Stop In The Name Of Love.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Edward Rothstein, in his NYT essay A Hatred That Resists Excorcism, examines the eternal force of anti-Semitism, and references two recent books on the subject by Robert Wistrich and Anthony Julius:
“While anti-Semitism has tapped into racial hatreds in modern times, Mr. Julius and Mr. Wistrich highlight its traditional reliance on conspiracy: the hidden plot. Anti-Semitism isn’t just a matter of asserting unpleasant or reprehensible attributes. It sees the Jew as an antinomian threat, overturning all ethical laws. The Jew works in secret, creating invisible alliances, pulling elaborate strings, undermining society’s foundations. This is why the Protocols of the Elders of Zion has found such a fertile international ground. That 19th-century document purports to be the secret minutes of such a plotting ensemble of Jews. It is the counterfeit confirmation of a long-held belief.
“Anti-Semitism is a metaphysical passion, not a materialist one. It doesn’t even require a Jewish presence.
(…)
“Is any evidence needed? Appearances are irrelevant; argument is illusion. What use is visible fact when the power of the Jew is in the web woven below the surface? Jewish autonomy is itself evidence of Jewish threat. Moreover, confrontation requires courage. Anti-Semitism never sees itself as a hatred; it views itself as a revelation. An attack on the Jew is never offensive; it is always defensive. This is precisely how the Nazis portrayed it. It is precisely how Islamist ideology does as well, evident, for example, in the principles and founding documents of Hamas and Hezbollah.”
It’s not a long piece, and not quite an essay, but I highly recommended reading the whole thing. It’s important to have the constant, perpetual attributes of anti-Semitism spelled out occasionally in the interests of being able to identify the various manifestations of this odious form of “magic” thinking that always, always masquerades as something else.
Of course few of us would be able to resist listening to a guy singing, :I’d Rather Hear a Fat Girl Fart Then Hear a Pretty Boy Sing”.
In light of the fact that the rest of the piece develops a position of – something resembling – interested neutrality, here’s a rather curious and malignant-sounding start to an article about Christopher Hitchens, by someone named Carlin Romano:
“If God occasionally intervenes in the world to shoot down an atheist—to show who’s boss, or simply to vent—it makes sense for Him to target the esophagus.
“As organs go, it’s long and conveniently placed, stretching from throat to stomach, making a good target for an elderly yet determined deity with possibly shaky hands. Its importance to speech heightens the symbolic force intended. And its connection to swallowing suggests the irony some believers think God enjoys too much: You can’t swallow me? You won’t swallow anything!”
A little too happily elaborate and, erm, ghoulishly overly-plumbed, IMO. I’ve seen a fair bit of this on the subject matter of Hitchens, where the writers seem to be typing with a pitchfork, and a barely-suppressed grin, “Why gosh, no, I’m not saying that, I’m just pointing out that theoretically…”
Of course this is revolting to suggest, but do I detect that you are suggesting it to be anti-Semitic? Afterall, it is only lately that we found out he was Jewish (by Jewish definition) and he himself was unaware of it until fairly recently. I always disliked the man, because I thought it cowardly to attack a dead nun the way he did and the method with which he argued his atheism.
EBD – I really don’t get the Hitch-hate. So he’s an atheist – I mean, so what? He’s a brilliant man; he writes about lots of different things; he isn’t an hysterical bore like Dawkins (on whom I also wouldn’t wish cancer BTW). Hating someone for being an unrepentant sorta-Trotskyite I could maybe get my head around.
Books like God is not Great just preach to the converted (NPI). They don’t change minds.
If he’s wrong, eventually he’ll die, just like evryone else; then think how stupid he’ll feel.
I don’t get the Jew-hate either, come to that.
larben @10:36 – ???
Black Mamba – You always get what you want to get, this argument is not about hating Jews, it’s about the hating of Christians, which is what Hitchens did (does). Hitchens was brought up Anglican and rejected that, he rejects Islam and even after finding out about his heritage, he rejects Judaism.
Why was he so angry with Fallacci? Was it because he is angered that she returned to the Faith? Would seem so, perhaps he wants to believe. Decision time!
Murray Rothbard on Greenspan way back in 1987.
PASSAGES:
————–
The astute observer might feel that anyone accorded such unanimous applause from the Establishment couldn’t be all good, and in this case he would be right on the mark. I knew Alan thirty years ago, and have followed his career with interest ever since.
I found particularly remarkable the recent statements in the press that Greenspan’s economic consulting firm of Townsend-Greenspan might go under, because it turns out that what the firm really sells is not its econometric forecasting models, or its famous numbers, but Greenspan himself, and his gift for saying absolutely nothing at great length and in rococo syntax with no clear-cut position of any kind.
As to his eminence as a forecaster, he ruefully admitted that a pension-fund managing firm he founded a few years ago just folded for lack of ability to apply the forecasting where it counted – when investment funds were on the line.
—————-
While at LouRockwell, check out the Rothbard file for some interesting stuff, including his reasons for breaking with Ayn Rand in Understanding Ayn Randianism: Murray Rothbard on the sociology of her cult..
You always get what you want to get. Don’t I wish.
I don’t see any connection between the two articles EBD linked.
The anti-Hitchens Christians are doing a better job at discrediting their religion than Hitchens could (although he is a pro at it). I doubt that Tales of a Vengeful God will call back any lost souls.
Black Mamba, there is no connection whatsoever between the two articles. I had no idea Hitchens is Jewish – if he is – and, more to the point, there’s nary a hint that Romano was riffing on Hitchen’s putative Jewishness, so I’m at a complete loss as to what larben’s talking about. Maybe he thinks my Tips are serially-ordered, carefully-coded messages, if you catch my drift.
Anyhoo…
Excerpt from Victor David Hanson’s Pity the Postmodern Cultural Elite:
“There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense. The idea that taxes cause scarcity, and subsidy abundance is a foreign concept. The notion that entitlements create dependency is considered Neanderthal. Tough penalties supposedly do not deter crime. Abroad, military preparedness or deterrence pales in comparison to “soft” diplomatic power and clever talking. Borrowing trillions is “stimulus” and need not quite be paid back. In other words, take a deep breath and imagine the opposite of everything you know by experience to be true, and you have mostly the worldview of the sheltered cultural elite, who navigate in rather protected channels and not in the open seas of the real world.”
EBD
I can relate to the thinly vieled pious smarm and bullshit some folks are capable of. Seen enough to know I don’t like it.
That said, Mr. Hitchens did engage, through his own(at times)vile rhetoric, in a cultural war.
That those vile souls on the other extreme would take comfort in his pain is to be expected.
Syncro
Robert Stacy McCain:
“Headline in the New York Post, Monday:
Bristol Palin & Levi Johnston eyeing reality show
Headine in US Weekly, later Monday:
Exclusive: Rep: Bristol Palin, Levi Johnston Aren’t Doing a Reality Show
“OK, so what’s going on here? Why would the New York Post print a story stating as a fact that Sarah Palin’s daughter was pitching a TV show without bothering to get confirmation from any of the alleged stars of such a show? They certainly must have trusted their sources. And who would those sources be?
“Hmmm. ‘One online commenter’? Better make that one anonymous commenter at a notorious anti-Palin blog…”
The rest here.
re EBD’s posted article: St Thomas had a stroke in his old age. Well, we call it a stroke nowadays, but he called it a vision of heaven. After witnessing the great works of God he said that all of his previous work was but straw in comparison, and stopped writing.
Or maybe he just had a stroke and couldn’t think too well anymore.
Perhaps EBD, you are being sincere in the total dis-connect between the 2 posts, it just seemed an odd tack to start on, a bit arcane to simpletons like myself. Like who the hell is Carlin Romano?
Black Mamba – I bet you get what you want a lot more than I do.
And Syncro, you are so right on the fact that Hitchens did engage himself in a touchy matter that he often provoked. If you mean that I am smarmy, I can live with that.
Safety First , of course you are talking about Thomas Aquinas and not Didymus the Apostle. He also heard voices that he thought were of God telling him that all his writings were like so much ashes in the wind. Which is pretty much what will happen here with our own musings.
Too bad for Hitchens. Drinking and smoking increases your risk for esophageal cancer; and that’s a nasty one.
In any case, I usually start to read articles in the National Post so I’m not biased by the writer. I find the ones I quit reading quickly are Hitchens and John Moore, neither of whom I agree with much. Hitchens just seems too bitter, and Moore is a bit of an idiot.
EBD 1109 – I’ve seen a lot of broadcasters doing the “Some say that . . . ” prelude – anonymous, and lazy in my opinion.
Excerpt from Thomas Sowell’s “Race Card Fraud” at RealClearPolitics:
“As Obama’s own books point out, he has for years cultivated a talent for saying things that people will find congenial.
“You want bipartisanship and an end to bickering in Washington? He will say that he wants bipartisanship and an end to bickering in Washington. Then he will shut Republicans out of the decision-making process and respond to their suggestions by reminding them that he won the election. A famous writer– Ring Lardner, I believe– once wrote: “‘Shut up,’ he explained.”
“You want a government that is open instead of secretive? He will say that. He will promise to post proposed legislation on the Internet long enough for everyone to read it and know what is in it before there is a vote. In practice, however, he has rushed massive bills through Congress too fast for anybody– even the members of Congress– to know what was in those bills.
“Racial issues are more of the same. You want a government where all citizens are treated alike, regardless of race or ethnicity? Obama will say that. Then he will advocate appointing judges with ’empathy’ for particular segments of the population, such as racial minorities. ‘Empathy’ is just a pretty word for the ugly reality of bias.
(…)
“There is not now, nor has there ever been, anything post-racial about Barack Obama, except for the people who voted for him in the mistaken belief that he shared their desire to be post-racial. When he leaves office, especially if it is after one term, he will leave this country more racially polarized than before.”
Yes, Thomas of A. I didn’t know that about the Apostle. Hopefully medical care is better now than “back then” so we won’t have to go crazy.
Interesting (short) read on what Progressive/Atheists have tried to accomplish since the 1960s and their denial about the fact it is an utter failure.
The piece is called “Intellectuals and Human Nature”
by Mike S.Adams
Read it here,
http://www.proudtobecanadian.ca/index/writergroup/intellectuals_and_human_nature/
Larben
One day we will all be ash in the wind.
The smarm I was refering to was some of the stuff from the evangelical hard right….as EBD pointed out.
Syncro
Sorry Safety First – It was Thomas Aquinas who felt he had heard the word of God telling him not to continue with the “Summa Theologica” I failed to express that clearly. Do you think it impossible that it may not have been a stroke, but rather the “wee, small voice of God”? Didymus is generally thought to be the Apostle Thomas who famously is accredited with saying “Let us go too, that we may die with him” (Jesus)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20100624/pl_politico/38999
“Reed is planning a high-risk, high-stakes strategy for bringing climate and energy legislation to the floor ahead of the August recess.”
Reed has gone ALL IN. The Republicans better get thier heads out of thier butts and Kill this Bill at all costs… If they allow Cap & trade to pass; Nov will be a disaster.. The Saga in the Gulf has been used to setup the showdown.
“No, Honey, it’s not raccoons…”.
More progressiveness from Jolly Old. Pip-pip:
“Dozens of councils are secretly rummaging through residents’ dustbins in search of clues to people’s race, social class and wealth.
“Officials and private contractors are tasked with examining the contents of families’ bins, checking supermarket labels, waste food and discarded mail. The exercise is part of a recycling initiative so councils can target households in different social categories with leafleting campaigns.”
(…)
“Leeds, Poole, Kensington and Chelsea, Swindon and Cheshire East councils all used some form of social profiling in their bin searches.
“In Hackney, East London, researchers picked homes based on their potential ethnic and social mix, collecting data separately on four different groups, including ‘multi-ethnic private flats’ and ‘prosperous young professionals’ flats’.
“The report concluded that ‘as expected’, ‘educated urbanites” living in ‘trendy’ flats threw away the least rubbish.”
Any chance ‘educated urbanites” living in ‘trendy’ flats, eat in reastaraunts?
Syncro
Good point, syncrodox, and I’m guessing they’re not tossing out a lot diapers either.
More from England:
Don’t cut the grass, it’s dangerous‘ says council that stopped cutting grass:
“A council that stopped cutting grass banks to save money has told residents they should not do it themselves, in case they get hurt.”
(…)
“Some 350 people from the town’s Coldstream Drive area have now signed a petition asking the authority to cut the banks, which they say have become an ‘appalling mess’, choked with litter and weeds.
“Neighbours…bandied together to hire a contractor at a cost of £200 but they had to drop the idea after the council warned against it.
“(Local resident Carol Weatherall) said: ‘We want to cut it ourselves but the council have told us it’s too dangerous…’
Lorrie Goldstein points out that it is illegal for dentists to treat their wives:
Link: http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2010/07/19/14760481.html
This is because another regulation regarding chiropractors was upheld in appeal court. Goldstein reports: a chiropractor started dating a woman; then he started treating her, they broke up; she owed him $567 at the time; he got a collection agency involved; she complained to the College of Chiropractors of Ontario, which charged him with sexual abuse.
The nonsense in these cases derives from the feminist lunatic fringe view of all-men-as-rapists. The age of consent in Canada is 16 (as of late), except in cases where one party is in a position of authority over the other, in which case it is 18. This is the only law that need apply.
This is nice and light but inspiring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUL13KEeS4s&feature=related
Enjoy!
Liberal leader Iffy caught with shirt tucked into underwear
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2010/07/major-dweeb-alert-ignatieffs-underwear.html
Conrad Black the very personification of conservatism is being released from prison today on bail pending a new trial in the USA.
Kate McMillan also the personification of Canadian blogger conservatism and Conrad Black both will become “FOX North” contributors is my prediction and all to the good for Canada and conservatism in the long haul.
Say what you will.
But mark my words!
What say you, Lorne Gunter and David Warren?
Come to my office, have a beer,
then we will play a round of golf.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that he will reconsider the abrupt firing of Shirley Sherrod,
a ‘victim’ of a media frenzy over comments that turned out to have been distorted by video editing.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40003.html#ixzz0uKIr9lJr
PET Cemetery Report.
Voodoo ex-GG has fulfilled all expectations: a nobody in a nowhere job in a moribund UN.
The left-liberal UN is dead.
More cuts to the left-liberal arts.
…-
“Governor General Michaëlle Jean will be appointed special envoy for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)” …
http://www.canada.com/person/michaelle-jean-0x22ae0/topic.html
…-
“U.N. “falling apart” under Ban Ki-moon: ex-official
The former head of the United Nations’ internal oversight office has accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of poor leadership, saying that the world body was “falling apart” and becoming irrelevant.
The latest criticism of Ban’s performance at the helm of the United Nations, first reported by the Washington Post on Tuesday, comes as his aides weigh the former South Korean foreign minister’s prospects for a possible second term.
The former head of the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), Inga-Britt Ahlenius of Sweden, said that under Ban’s watch “there is no transparency, there is (a) lack of accountability.”
“I regret to say that the (U.N.) Secretariat now is in a process of decay,” Ahlenius said in what she described as an “end-of-assignment report.” She left the job last week and no successor has so far been named.
“It is not only falling apart … It is drifting into irrelevance,” she wrote.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100720/wl_nm/us_un_criticism
Whither Al Gore (WAG)? (Formerly AGW)
WAG: It’s her fault.
…-
“Australia’s BoM declares La Niña in the Pacfic
From the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) see the SOI below, now firmly in positive territory like in 2008. An animation of SST from the Navy follows.”
…-
“Cold snap freezes South America – beaches whitened, some areas experience snow for the first time in living memory
From the “weather is not climate” department, more chilling news from the southern hemisphere.”
…-
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
It’s interesting to examine why something exists. Not just to describe WHAT it is but explore WHY.
Why, for example, does anti-semitism exist? We all know what it is but why does it exist? That’s what’s puzzling. I wonder if it is because Judaism is, in its nature as a social reality, exclusionary. I don’t mean its religious ideas for they are hardly controversial, and are indeed never referred to in any anti-semitic attack.
Is it because Judaism, as a societal construct, is clearly exclusionary? Judaism, unlike Christianity, does not seek conversions. Unlike Islam, it does not have an agenda of forced obeisance and submission. It is a tribe, a hereditary ideology passed on via the matrilineal link. [That in itself is interesting suggesting that Judaism emerged from a horticultural economy that relied on the women’s work in the economy.]
Again, no-one says a word about the actual religious ideas of Judaism. The only issues one hears about are ‘they think they are better than us’..and after all, it IS a societal belief of Judaism to define themselves as The Chosen People. But heck- Islam has copied that…and what’s going on?
Chrisianity is an open system. You aren’t born into it; you must choose to be a member (baptism and confirmation). Its major axioms are collaboration with and acceptance of Others. Any and all can join.
Judaism, on the other hand, is fully self-absorbed, self-sufficient and has no interest in Others. Is this isolationist self-focus a basic ‘causal germ’ of anti-semitism?
Naturally, a group that is isolate, is going to be coloured in, so to speak, with all kinds of fictional tales about its ‘hidden agenda’ and ‘secret behaviour’. That’s not the point. My question is – since the antipathy cannot be about Jewish religious beliefs, then it has to be about societal behaviour. And that behaviour is exclusionary and uninterested in Others. Could that be the reason? Do we like dealing with groups that reject us?
Islam, which is less a religion and primarily a political and societal system, is also exclusionary but in a very, very different way than Judaism. Judaism does not seek to convert others. It prefers to live intact, isolate, alongside others; not to merge with them; it will get along with them as long as it can retain its distinct identity, but it has no interest in merging.
Islam is focused on Others. Very much so. It seeks to destroy all otherness by force. At least, with Islam, you know where you stand; it’s against you. Not simply indifferent.
Islam has been recently defining itself in an exclusionary and isolationist manner – via the burkha. That’s a clear signal of a ‘distinct society’ and a rejection of interaction with others. We see Europe fighting back against this.
So, my question focuses around ‘why’. Why does anti-semitism exist – and since it can’t be about the religious beliefs it has to be about societal behaviour. The only thing I can come up with is the Judaic societal isolation. Make any sense?
Great links and discussion here EBD. Thanks. And the music lately is not too shabby!
Re: Hitchens
I’m a Bible believing Jesus follower. Those who know the truth were not threatened by Hitchens. In fact I found his rhetoric useful in challenging the believers. A challenge seperates the chafe from the seed.
And those so-called Christians who claim to know the mind of God and state that Hitchens cancer is ‘justice’ would lose their argument if I presented to them the number of true heroes of the faith (from history and some close friends) that have suffered similar or worse fates. Shall we follow up on those hypocrites and see how they die (cuz we’re all gonna die) and analyse their suffering and circumstances?
Their rhetoric is damaging the Body of Christ more than Hitchens.
As for the UN- “It is not only falling apart … It is drifting into irrelevance,” she wrote.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100720/wl_nm/us_un_criticism
Drifting?
More like at the bottom of the sea of irrelevance.
safety forced: “After witnessing the great works of God [St. T of A] said that all of his previous work was but straw in comparison, and stopped writing.
“Or maybe he just had a stroke and couldn’t think too well anymore.”
‘See what I mean about the “respect” shown for Christianity? Lovely comment sf.
I seriously question any Hitchens-hating on the part of self-identified Christians. They’re obviously in need of an attitude adjustment: Confession is a great help in this department.
The Christian Scriptures say, “Love your enemies and pray for those who hate you.” And they mean it.
Christopher Hitchens may hate Christianity and say nasty things about Mother Teresa, but that’s no justification to hate him. I am praying for Christopher Hitchens and I’ll bet that Mother Teresa is too.
I posted this a few days ago, what Hitchens has to say about people praying for him:
“Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don’t do any good, but they don’t necessarily do any harm. It’s touching to be thought of in that way. … I have to say there’s some extremely nice people, including people known to you [Hugh Hewitt], have said that I’m in their prayers, and I can only say that I’m touched by the thought.”
http://hughhewitt.com/blog/g/3979a77d-720a-4853-8890-1fc4f22c23cb
ET asks: Why does anti-semitism exist
Quick answer: Satan
Genesis 3:15 says “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: It Shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” That is, it is a perpetual quarrel between the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of the devil among men.
Ephesians 6:12 says: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
Anti-semitism and the hatred of Christ’s teaching and His followers (both of which are on the rise) will not end until the return of Christ so we should never be caught by surprise but be vigilant.
Shocking. Have you MET the UN?
gellen, I would add one more verse that ties it all together.
Jeremiah 17:9
“The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?”
ET..I appreciate your discussions however your atheism gives your perspective a slant.
I am a Jesus follower (Christian) by faith and choice, not by baptism or confirmation. Rituals are added by some churches.
Al’s WAG (Formerly AGW) “cold snap” “map”.
“One was needed given the revelation that the cold had crossed the equator from the South, a rather rare event.”
…-
“Mapping the cold snap in South America
More from the “weather is not climate” department in the “hottest year so far ever”.
Our previous article on this here, illustrated the scope of the event in human terms, but we didn’t have a map to show extent of the cold air mass. One was needed given the revelation that the cold had crossed the equator from the South, a rather rare event.
Now we have a map that illustrates the magnitude, see below. Thanks to Joe D’Aleo of ICECAP.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/
bluetech – that’s my point. Christianity is a CHOICE. Not an inherited religion. The fact that you didn’t go through baptism (an uninherited action) or confirmation (same)..isn’t the point. As you point out – these are rituals. But they are rituals of choice.
You are a Christian by choice. What I’m trying to explore is why anti-semitism exists. As I said, it can’t be the religious beliefs – for they are never discussed and are hardly controversial. I’m saying that it’s the exclusiveness of Judaism as a social population.
This can be seen in their disinterest in Others, their disinterest in asking you, the Other, to enter into their society. Christianity is a missionizing belief; it actively seeks out and encourages others to ‘become members’. Islam does the same – by militant force. Only Judaism has no interest in asking you to ‘enter their House’and become like them. Indeed, it even suggests that this might not be possible.
I’m suggesting that this isolation, this self-description as ‘The Chosen People’, this disinterest in Others – sets up a hostility in those outside.
Gellen – sorry, but your answer to my question of ‘why does anti-semitism exist’ is just another description. It answers ‘what’, and only according to your beliefs. It doesn’t explain ‘why’.
As for my atheism, that’s irrelevant to my analysis. I am not considering anti-semitism in its religious ideology for anti-semitism as I said, is not about the religion but about the people who follow (or even don’t follow) that religion. So – what is it about the people? My answer is their exclusiveness and lack of interest in Other.
Mao Stlong* Lepolt:
O’s son of “beech”(sic).
How many “doom” you wan?
…-
“After Gulf, now China spill spells doom
BEIJING: The environmental damage caused by massive oil spill at China’s Dalian port following explosions of pipelines last week could last more than a decade adding to the ecological implications of the Gulf of Mexico oil rig maritime disaster in US.
Chinese officials said the clean up of the Yellow sea and beech in and around the explosion site may take more than ten days but its implications could last beyond a decade. The amount of crude oil that had spilled into the sea was still unknown but state-run China Central Television reported that the leak was estimated at 1,500 tons.
Officials claim that more than one-third of the crude oil that was spilled had been collected by Monday, three days after the incident which took place on July 16.”
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/After-Gulf-now-China-spill-spells-doom/articleshow/6193455.cms
(* Canadian “Liberal leader” Bob Rae is my nephew.)
ET – I’m sure you’re right about the exclusivity(?) of Judaism being the basis for anti-semitism in part, but it can’t be the whole story. By the 20th century the Jews in Germany were probably the most integrated in the world outside of America, as is my understanding, and we know how well that turned out.
ET: A most interesting inquiry. I have a virulently anti-semtic “friend” who actually disputes that he is anti-semitic despite his morbid focus on Jews. His latest: Mel Gibson is being “crucified” ‘cos he’s Catholic and did a film in which Jews were portrayed in a negative light; Roman Polanski, on the other hand, is feted in Hollywood (but is this true?) despite his drugging and raping a juvenile, ‘cos he’s a Jew. Which one is the Jew? he asked, sneeringly.
I think you’ve nailed it in referring to the exclusivity: in almost all his correspondence about Israel-Jews, I get the “chosen people” sneer, over and over again.
But isn’t the fable that the Jews killed Christ, and Mohammed’s anger at their rejection of his upstart religion which lacked even the imagination to come up with original characters, part of it too?
And let us never forget the power of envy in the world. As we all know, Jews are extremely over-represented in so many professional fields.
Finally, his anti-semitism is so ridiculous that he once suggested that I didn’t succeed as a songwriter, decades ago, “cos of the Jews” who of course control all financial services and media!
me no dhimmi – I knew it! I knew why you didn’t succeed as a songwriter! It was ‘those Jews!’. Heh. But what is interesting is that the rhetoric is always about: ‘They [the Jews] are excluding us’.
I personally think that the exclusion theme is the most important reason for anti-semitism. I think the ‘Jews killed Jesus’ is secondary, even an afterthought. After all, the most devout Christians are not anti-semites. The Islamic theme that ‘you don’t accept us’ – well, Islamists say that to everyone.
I think what bothers people is that you have a group of people who consider themselves morally, ideologically, intellectually, sufficient-unto-themselves. They have no interest in Others. That ‘rankles’.
As I said, the basic axiom of Christianity is its focus on an acceptance and love for Others. The unfortunate axiom of Islam is its insistence that it must dominate all Others. So, you’ve got three kinds of interaction with Others.
Ignoring them.
Loving them.
Controlling them.
With regard to Islam, at least you know that ‘they’ are ‘out to get you’. You can fight back. But with regard to Judaism, they simply aren’t interested in you. They don’t want to convert you; they don’t want to dominate you; they simply aren’t interested. That act of indifference is viewed as an act of rejection..and the result by those who feel rejected..is anti-semitism.
Yes, I’m aware that in Germany the Jews were the most assimilated and indeed, felt they were Germans first. So how could anti-semitism arise?
It was a particular type of anti-semitism; fascist anti-semitism. Fascism is based around a notion of an a priori purity of type; that is, the Germans required an impure ‘Other’ in their territory to reject and remove and so, claim that long ago historical utopia of purity.
Non-fascist anti-semitism operates in the non-Jew who rejects the Judaic view of them as ‘Other’ and even, as unnecessary to the Judaic life.
ET – great question. While Judaism does not actively seek out new adherents, it has no issue with non Jews who wish to join their society. Sammy Davis Jr, is one who comes to mind, as well, in my case, my first cousin who married a Jewish fellow.
I have no great insights into why anti-Semitism exists. Lorrie Goldstein wrote an interesting column a few weeks back which touched on this subject, but he offered no opinion on the “why” of its existence.
Have you posed this question to a Jew?
Very eloquent posing of your question and your thoughts on it.
After the term “man-caused disasters” surfaced last year, Jonah Goldberg suggested that perhaps terrorists should be described as”Men prone to disaster causation.” Bruce Ross at redding.com has come across another real-world double-speak euphemism to add to such gems as “man-caused disaster” and “overseas contingency operations”:
“In the Forest Service’s news release about the recent string of marijuana busts, I discovered a term of art I’d never encountered before:
“‘Displaced foreign traveler’? Makes it sound like he meant to go to Disneyland, got lost, and ended up at a pot plantation in the woods south of Hayfork…”
(via bookwormroom.com)
Jews quit Austrian Social Dem party
By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
07/21/2010 04:25
Anti-Israeli resolution coupled with anti-Semitism causes exodus.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=182077
“(The Jews) simply aren’t interested. That act of indifference is viewed as an act of rejection…and the result to those who feel rejected is…anti-semitism.”
I think you’re badly wide of the mark on that one, ET. Your conjecture is entirely premised on the false notion that anti-Semites wish for and desire communion, fellowship and interaction with Jews. I don’t believe that for a second; I don’t believe that virulent anti-Semites – whether it be Germans in the 1930’s, say, or members of Hamas, or any anti-Semite in the world today – have any desire to be accepted by Jews or to interact with them. Even if they *did* feel rejection – and they don’t – that wouldn’t even begin to explain the power and scope of anti-Semitism.
In my opinion anti-Semitism has the same root cause as, albeit it’s a more virulent and culturally embedded form of, leftism: it’s a product – now deeply culturally-inculcated in backwoods/desert spawn of all ilks – of dumb resentment of the success and abilities of others coupled with an unwillingness to blame one’s own shortcomings and inabilities on one’s self.
Suggestions/assertions that the success of Jews is the result of collusion – exclusion’s eternal twin – or evil rites, or magic powers, are just the excuses that inferior people (not you, obviously, ET, because you’re not an anti-Semite) use to comfort themselves: “It can’t be that my kinfolk/group aren’t as hardworking/smart; there must be some other explanation.”
I may have missed this in an earlier tip,if so my apologies.
The Crown is appealing the sentence of the poor mom who was guided by the hand of Allah to strangle her daughter. http://www.calgarysun.com/news/alberta/2010/07/21/14781091.html