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LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION
Posted by Ron Coleman on February 28, 2010
Today is the Jewish holiday of Purim. (Unlike the biblically-based Jewish holidays, this is one, like Chanuka, on which I’m allowed to blog!)
As well explained in the Book of Esther, it’s the holiday of turnabout, surprises, false identities, intrigue, perhaps some emotional legerdemain, and not a little spiritual confusion. The outcome isn’t always funny, or even fun, except perhaps in the sense of the divine comedy.
It all comes around in the end, though!
Posted in Faith and Works, Futurama, Heart and spirit, Orient, Past is prologue | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on February 16, 2010
New York Times:
U.S. Encounters Limits of Iran Engagement Policy
Well, let’s be sure and learn all this stuff from scratch. Each time.
Posted in Orient, Past is prologue, Politics and Poker, Stragety | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on December 22, 2009
Iran’s nuclear arsenal is a problem for which the blame can be shared across all Western regimes. And I don’t blame Russia, China or North Korea, really, because they’re doing exactly what Russia, China and North Korea will do. But this is not a Republican or a Democrat thing; it’s a disaster thing and a lack of guts thing and a collective-action-dilemma thing.
So here’s the thing:
The international community can give Iran “as many deadlines as they want, we don’t care,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to thousands of supporters in the southern city of Shiraz.
Ahmadinejad dismissed the threat of sanctions, saying Iran wants talks “under just conditions where there is mutual respect.”
“We told you that we are not afraid of sanctions against us, and we are not intimidated,” he said, addressing the West. “If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be brave enough to tell you.”
As the crowd cheered: “We love you, Ahmadinejad,” the Iranian leader lashed out at Washington, vowing Iran will stand up against U.S. attempts to “dominate the Middle East.”
If you wanted to make up a scenario where a modern-day, psychologically dented, ideologically bizarre and, natch, antisemitic regime vaulted itself into great power status and the ability to threaten the whole world with (small H) holocaust … and said all the leader of that country had to do was follow the Hitler-at-Munich playbook to a T … in what possible respect would it look any different from how Iran looks right now?
Cross-posted on Right Wing News.
Posted in Orient, Past is prologue, Politics and Poker, Sisyphus, Stragety | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on October 19, 2009
The New York Times gives us a primer on how Red is Red:
Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed.
United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior Chinese Communist Party officials to hear firsthand how they wield power.
In truth, the Russians express no desire to return to Communism as a far-reaching Marxist-Leninist ideology, whether the Soviet version or the much attenuated one in Beijing. What they admire, it seems, is the Chinese ability to use a one-party system to keep tight control over the country while still driving significant economic growth.
And that differs from Stalinism exactly how? Besides not being called Communism, I mean.
The Kremlin’s strategy was apparent in regional elections last week, when United Russia lieutenants and government officials used strong-arm tactics to squeeze out opposition parties, according to nonpartisan monitoring organizations. United Russia won the vast majority of contests across the country.
Far behind was the Russian Communist Party, which styles itself as the successor to the Soviet one and has some popularity among older people. The Russian Communists have also sought to build ties to their Chinese brethren, but the Chinese leadership prefers to deal with Mr. Putin’s party.
Sure. Why deal with loser commies when you can deal with the new, improved winning kind?
One from Column A
Posted in Oppression, Orient, Past is prologue | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on October 13, 2009
Uncle Joe
The late-evening ruling was a rare victory for Stalin’s critics in their fight against efforts to rehabilitate the dictator, who according to the rights group Memorial ordered the deaths of at least 724,000 people during a series of purges that peaked in the late 1930s. But defendants said that having the case even make it to court was evidence of a chilling tendency to question the dark side of Soviet history.
Well, you can’t have everything, comrades. It’s all you can do sometimes just to un-make an omelet.
Posted in Oppression, Orient, Past is prologue | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on October 5, 2009
From the Telegraph of London (via Insty):
A photograph of the Iranian president [Ahmadinejad] holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.
A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.
Oy, not only an antisemite — but the worst kind! A Jewish one! And from a family in the shmatta trade, even!
This is only partly funny. It is also only partly surprising. Jews do have a way of rising in prominence regardless of where they are. When they are in the wrong place, unfortunately, their rise … does the Jews, and the world, no favors. And typically, unfortunately, they assert their purported non-Jewishness very assertively against Jewish values and people, perhaps to “prove” how not-Jewish they are or, perhaps, for more complex moral and psychological reasons.
Which is why they should, you know, be in the right place, by which I do not mean a place found on the map.
And in this case, by the way, what’s the real story? Well, continue with the article:
The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth.
Well, there you have it. No wonder they converted — they had a Jew-hating mamzer like this for a kid!
UPDATE: Glad I got that in before the inevitable debunking:
Professor David Yeroshalmi, author of The Jews of Iran in the 19th century and an expert on Iranian Jewish communities, disputes the validity of this argument. “There is no such meaning for the word ‘sabour’ in any of the Persian Jewish dialects, nor does it mean Jewish prayer shawl in Persian. Also, the name Sabourjian is not a well-known Jewish name,” he stated in a recent interview. In fact, Iranian Jews use the Hebrew word “tzitzit” to describe the Jewish prayer shawl. Yeroshalmi, a scholar at Tel Aviv University’s Center for Iranian Studies, also went on to dispute the article’s findings that the “-jian” ending to the name specifically showed the family had been practising Jews. “This ending is in no way sufficient to judge whether someone has a Jewish background. Many Muslim surnames have the same ending,” he stated.
Turban-tip to LGF.
Posted in Faith and Works, Oppression, Orient, Past is prologue | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on August 23, 2009
Glenn Reynolds cites Matt Welch, to the effect that “The Real Reason Americans Are Angry: It’s The Big Government, Stupid“:
It’s been a hilarious August, watching media supporters of President Obama’s health care package puzzle over the obscure motivations of the noncompliant Americans rallying against it. . . .
While the commentariat’s condescension is almost comical, the whole evil-or-stupid explanation misses the elephant in Obama’s room: Americans of all stripes, it turns out, aren’t very keen about the government barging into their lives. . . . This isn’t about liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. A majority oppose Obama’s policies because they fly in the face of this country’s bedrock values of personal liberty and limited government. . . .
Then, gentlemen, who are these angry people angry at?
THESE ANGRY PEOPLE ELECTED A COMPLETELY BIG-GOVERNMENT GOVERNMENT. This “majority” elected Obama and two parliamentary houses full of whores (or worse) while being under no illusions whatsoever as to what “Obama’s policies” were going to be.
Either this is a “different majority” or someone is playing three-card monte here — can we have two 51 percents in the same whole?
We get the democracy we deserve when we vote for it.
And, by the way: I wonder how many members of this majority sat at home (0r worse) because John McCain’s conservativism wasn’t pure enough for them, and helped us arrive at this state of affairs?
And now these “Americans” are “angry” at Obama — for being Obama?!
Posted in Americana, Oppression, Past is prologue, Sisyphus | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on July 29, 2009
Jewish tradition teaches that on Tisha B’Av (the Ninth day of the month of Av) , five national calamities occurred:
Other grave misfortunes throughout Jewish history occurred on the Ninth of Av, including:
More on the Ninth of Av, which begins tonight. Observant Jews will fast (a complete fast — no food, no water) until nightful Tuesday night. For us, this is the “hardest” day of the year. (Reposted from past years.)
Posted in Faith and Works, Heart and spirit, Orient, Past is prologue | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on June 3, 2009
Mickey Kaus explains, as only he can, how the UAW Administration Obama Administration have made sure the UAW has hedged all its bets in this customized, union-friendly bankruptcy at GM.
You should read the whole thing in order to understand how hopeless this situation is. And that means reading right down to the very bottom, where he makes the point everyone seems to forget:
If the process had to start last November, though, it seems unfair to blame only Obama.
Quite unfair.
Posted in Futurama, Gelt, Past is prologue, Politics and Poker | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ron Coleman on May 27, 2009
North Korean threatens blah blah blah:
Clinton said North Korea has made a choice to violate U.N. Security Council resolutions, ignore international warnings and abrogate commitments made during six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.
“There are consequences to such actions,” she said, referring to discussions in the United Nations about punishing North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.
Laugh me out loud. “Consequences” — yeah, like maybe we won’t start shipping them free grain and rice until almost the third week in January!
She did not provide specifics, saying only that the intent of diplomats was to “try to rein in the North Koreans” and get them to fulfill commitments made in the nuclear talks.
That’s keeping them up all night, I’m sure. The prospect of diplomats with INTENT!
Clinton said she was pleased by a unified international condemnation of North Korea that included Russia and China, North Korea’s closest major ally and the host of the currently stalled disarmament talks.
Yeah, yeah. Condemnation — so, so key. Key to the kingdom in fact. When you’ve got condemnation, you’ve got it all.
It’s not a Democrat thing. Something happens when you go to Washington. You… you get really, really stupid, I guess.
Posted in Past is prologue, Sisyphus, Stragety | 2 Comments »
