Larry Adler - You Are An IDIOT. And So Much Worse

Dear Larry Adler,

How could you do such a stupid, dangerous, harmful, selfish thing? As a prominent Jewish leader in America, you have a responsibility to the people who have raised you up. To pen an Op-Ed where you openly call for the assassination of a U.S. President is simply insane. You have lost your mandate to lead, and you should resign your position in media. Nothing within reason could ever be an excuse for your behavior.

This is an open letter to you Larry, so that you know what harm you have done to the Jewish community all over the world. People don't need a reason to hate, distrust, and want to kill Jewish people. We work our entire lives to avoid the persecution that your one letter will be certain to bring upon us. Now you have given ammunition to anyone who needed a reason to cover up the real causes of their hate for us.

Nothing you do from this point on will ever erase the repercussions of your actions. You might as well renounce your Judaism, for at this point, I don't want to associate you with my religion.

Shame on you Mr. Adler for behavior so irresponsible, it borders on homicidal.

Music As God

So, I'm listening/watching a youtube video of Paul Simon singing "You Can Call Me Al" in Zimbabwe, and I'm suddenly struck with a couple of thoughts.

1. Why are there thousands of people congregating in a single place, together, to listen and dance to this music? A recording does just as good a job at playing the music, but for some reason all these people have come here to listen and share in the music at the same time. So, assuming that the reason they are all here is because the music is live...what does live music have that draws people together like this?

2. They are all here because the bandleader is leading them in dance and song. It is all but a religious experience for them; what are the differences between this event and a religious celebration?

3. People are social animals. We congregate in groups with people we consider "us" rather than "them." So we have an intense innate desire to join with people, and we also are hard wired to pray to a higher power. We as humans give our power up to a single leader, a President, dictator, etc, so that we can be a part of a community.

4. Pop music is a medium for spirituality, as shown by these trends. People join together in extremely large groups, of people they certainly don't know and thus can be considered strangers, and they are led by a single person or very few people, to achieve a certain kind of ectasy, the concert experience.

5. People are hardwired to look to a single person or small group for leadership, knowledge, religion, you name it. Bob Dylan said, "We all serve somebody", and what I think that means is that we have a need to look to somebody for answers. No matter if you are supreme dictator of the world, persay, you will always feel like there is/should be somebody above you, looking down at you.

6. And that is why people congregate for musical concerts. We allow a small group of individuals to lead us in song and dance in a way that is very reminiscent of religious ceremonies. It gives us something for our unconscious, subconscious, and conscious levels of our minds. Something that was once probably a survival mechanism.

All of the above needs more pondering

Snuffleupagus - The Villain?

Snuffleupagus was always my favorite character on Sesame Street. I loved mammoths, and he was just a big furry friendly one. I can't remember if I realized or not back then that, for the most part, Snuffy was just Big Bird's imaginary friend.

And then I read this section of a wikipedia article about him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Snuffleupagus

"In an interview on a Canadian telethon that was hosted by Bob McGrath, Snuffy's performer, Martin P. Robinson, revealed that Snuffy was finally introduced to the main human cast mainly due to a string of high profile and sometimes graphic stories of pedophilia^{[citation needed]} and sexual abuse of children that had been aired on shows such as 60 Minutes and 20/20. The writers felt that by having the adults refuse to believe Big Bird despite the fact that he was telling the truth, they were scaring children into thinking that their parents would not believe them if they had been sexually abused and that they would just be better off remaining silent. On the same telethon, during Robinson's explanation, Loretta Long uttered the words "Bronx daycare," a reference to a news event on New York TV station WNBC-TV in which there were reports of alleged sexual abuse at a Bronx daycare center^{[citation needed]}. This was seen in the documentary Sesame Street Unpaved."

I mean, really?

That goes pretty far afield in terms of mass media's effect on psychology, but someone had enough clout to eventually yell loud enough to make it a reality.

Kinda makes me sad though.

Big Pharma Poised To Take Over Marijuana Industry

So, a report came out that says,

""While there may be medical value for some of the individual components of the cannabis plant, the fact remains that smoking marijuana is an inefficient and harmful method for delivering the constituent elements that have or may have medicinal value," the report says""

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/11/white-house-admits-marijuana-has-some-medical-value/

Then there's this:

"Sativex is the brand name for a drug derived from cannabis sativa. It's an extract from the whole plant cannabis, not a synthetic compound. Even GW defines the drug (.pdf) as marijuana.

Yet as the FDA is poised to approve the drug for Big Pharma, state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries that provide relief for thousands of Americans are under attack by other federal agencies.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has warned just as much, claiming that federal authorities may be looking to shift policy slightly, if only to legalize marijuana-based medicines for Big Pharma only, which could step in and potentially eradicate the medical marijuana market."

Thus the solution to the war on drugs was found. Just empower Big Pharma to do as they please regarding illegal drugs, and they will PERSONALLY stamp out any one trying to elbow in on their markets. They will SINGLE HANDEDLY destroy local marijuana growers and take over the industry overnight.

So yea, its okay to let corporate interests control our lives, but not farmers trying to make a buck. Love America. No, scratch that. I love human nature.

Bin Laden Blackout

I'm having trouble understanding what is going on, maybe you, my loyal readers, can spell it out for me.

America was attacked on its home soil, thousands were killed.

America then entered into not one, but TWO wars, to retaliate and make us "safer".

10 years later - 1 0 Y E A R S L A T E R - we finally get the 'mastermind' behind the 9/11 attacks.

And the government is keeping us in the dark on the details.

Bin Laden is the ONE REASON we have lost our civil liberties, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, funneled trillions of lost dollars into war and murder that we desperately need for infrastructure, health care, and education...and they won't tell us what the f is going on?

I know this country became less of a republic and more of a dictatorship since Bush, but this is one of the most obvious examples. If Mr. Change Obama himself can't tell us the truth, there is no chance for the future of this country.

FAIL: Financial Regulators

New York Times led with an interesting story today, about why there have been no high level prosecutions for the financial crisis of 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/business/14prosecute.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

In essence, they say there were no prosecutions, because the regulators did not work to provide enough evidence of wrongdoing (or pretty much anything) leading up to, or during the investigations after the bubble burst.

So, does this mean that the regulators were in on it? That bribery is the reason they were so lax? Or perhaps it was institutional, and the people in charge had more to benefit from financial fraud than stopping it, so they created a task force that couldn't task anything?

I don't know. My gut says a combination of both. I do know that I, and everyone else in this country, and the world, should be disgusted by the apathy shown here. Regulators who didn't do their job were one of the major factors of the whole mess. Basically, its their fault, since it was their responsibility to stop something like this.

Heckuva job, Regulators!

Obama's Give And Take

Well, the fix is in.

Obama's lame duck presidency, where he sits over two wars without actually commanding either, has seen one of it's most major trade-offs yet.

It is also indicative of where Republicans (and their supporters) really stand on some issues.

Here's how I see it. Obama caved in and re-established tax cuts, which the Republicans had basically stalled the government to see pass. (Obama's two cents, give tax cuts for ALL!)

In turn, Republicans have caved on "Don't Ask Don't Tell", the 9/11 healthcare bill, and the Nuke treaty.

A fair trade?

NYT Reports on Vitamin D - Badly

Today's health watch comes, once again, from the New York Slimes, which has published a report that attempts to debunk the Vitamin D craze sweeping the nation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/health/30vitamin.html?hp

I have heard and read several reports on the radio, online, and TV that suggest most Americans are deficient in Vitamin D, which opens the field to a host of diseases and health problems.

http://www.grassrootshealth.net/

However a new report has brought into question previous findings about Vitamin D.

"The 14-member expert committee was convened by the Institute of Medicine, an independent nonprofit scientific body, at the request of the United States and Canadian governments. It was asked to examine the available data — nearly 1,000 publications — to determine how much vitamin D and calcium people were getting, how much was needed for optimal health and how much was too much."

"The very high levels of vitamin D that are often recommended by doctors and testing laboratories — and can be achieved only by taking supplements — are unnecessary and could be harmful, an expert committee says. It also concludes that calcium supplements are not needed."

"The group said most people have adequate amounts of vitamin D in their blood supplied by their diets and natural sources like sunshine, the committee says in a report that is to be released on Tuesday."

Here's my problem. They simply reviewed medical journals and reports, and did not create any new research. They also said,

"Evidence also suggests that high levels of vitamin D can increase the risks for fractures and the overall death rate and can raise the risk for other diseases. While those studies are not conclusive, any risk looms large when there is no demonstrable benefit. Those hints of risk are “challenging the concept that ‘more is better,’ ” the committee wrote."

Umm, you are reporting something you are treating as fact that in fact is INCONCLUSIVE? How is that a good recommendation?

Then there's this:

"Some labs have started reporting levels of less than 30 nanograms of vitamin D per milliliter of blood as a deficiency. With that as a standard, 80 percent of the population would be deemed deficient of vitamin D, Dr. Rosen said. Most people need to take supplements to reach levels above 30 nanograms per milliliter, he added.

But, the committee concluded, a level of 20 to 30 nanograms is all that is needed for bone health, and nearly everyone is in that range."

Great, awesome, thank you. I am not taking Vitamin D to promote my bone health. I am taking it to promote HEART health, which is what new studies suggest D can do, as well as preventing a number of ailments that are likely if you are Vitamin D deficient. Check out that grassroots link above for more info.

Basically, what I have read is that Vitamin D plays a larger role in our health than we have known. In addition, it is difficult to OD on Vitamin D, so taking extra won't harm you.

As a North American, I simply do not get enough sunshine and thus Vit D in my system. Not to mention, who is sunning themselves in winter?

I just don't think that 1) this report is a responsible action to take and is misinforming most people), and 2) that the NYT should have blatantly printed it without any kind of other opinion. From reading the comments on this article, I'm not the only one outraged at this kind of scientific mumbo jumbo.

I will continue taking my Vitamin D supplements, thank you very much, until a CONCLUSIVE NEW STUDY tells me different. And you should too.

Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman, you are a fucking asshole. How the fuck do you know what I'm thinking about Israel?

You are clearly an anti-zionist. You always have been, as long as I've been reading you. And you are always making stupid statements that are as far from the truth as I am from being an astronaut.

And then you go make a statement like, as read on jpost.com, "The New York Times columnist also lamented the fact that young American Jews are drifting away from Israel."

Really? How do you know that? Did you take a poll? Read a 'statistic' from the 'news organization' CNN? Or maybe your hubris has racketed up a notch, and now you think you speak for all American Jews?

You say things that purposely damage people's perspective on Israel, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and Israeli's in particular. Nothing, NOTHING you have ever written has offered any kind of positive impact on the situation. It is always deriding Israel for this, or that, and never, EVER, getting to the heart of the situation. That is what makes you most pathetic.

You have been writing for more than a decade, and you still don't know what fuck you are talking about.

From the Jpost.com, "Friedman derided Israel's calls for the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a Jewish State in exchange for a renewed freeze on construction in the settlements that could revive peace talks."

Really? Now why would you do that? Don't you think that Israel being recognized as a legal and internationally recognized Jewish state would help...AT ALL?

Israel has been asking for this request for it's ENTIRE EXISTENCE. It is not tied to a simple building freeze. Which obviously has other implications than you know, since you've never delved into it.

So yea, you are a fucking asshole. You are akin to a self hating Jew. Using your legitimate platform to illigitimately demonize Israel. Get a fucking life, get a fucking clue, and stop writing, talking, and thinking, since that only does harm to the world. And to me personally.

Fucking. Asshole.

Response to NYT "Israel Without Cliches"

Yet another ridiculous narrow minded op-ed from the NYT about Israel.

Op-ed here

1. "Israel belies the comfortable American cliché that “democracies don’t make war."

I love the way people make statements without any evidence to back them up. First of all, the phrase is not "democracies don't make war." It is, "Democracies don't go to war AGAINST ANOTHER DEMOCRACY."

Here is a great argument both for and against this phrase.

In any case, in the latter half of the 20th century to the present, democracies do not generally fight wars with other democracies. If you like, you can even say "AMERICA belies the comfortable cliche that democracies don't make war." 'Cause, look at our war budget.

2. "Unsurprisingly, the state has acquired pathological habits. Of these, the most damaging is its habitual resort to force."

Why do you think Israel resorts so often to force? Did you offer any explanation? No. Well here is one.

Israel has fought several wars in which it was out numbered, out gunned, and their enemies wanted nothing less than total destruction of their nation. They are fighting Islamic oriented states whose social and political thinking may as well be 1,000 years in the past, in terms of modern democracies. And these nations, and people, respect NOTHING except force. Israel has NO CHOICE but to appear frightening and powerful. This image is the only thing keeping it alive. Your op-ed even says,

"Israel is not responsible for the fact that many of its near neighbors long denied its right to exist. The sense of siege should not be underestimated when we try to understand the delusional quality of many Israeli pronouncements."

I have news for you. Israel's pronouncement of it's right to exist is not "delusional." It's military/force policies exist because any apparent weakness will give it's enemies a reason to attack it. AGAIN. There are multiple examples of this throughout Israel's 62 year history.

3. "As American officials privately acknowledge, sooner or later Israel (or someone) will have to talk to Hamas."

You're wrong. Because there is no 'sooner or later, HAMAS will have to talk to ISRAEL.'

And that is the truth of the situation. HAMAS seeks the destruction of Israel, not peace with it. PERIOD. How do you talk to that? (I have yet to receive an answer to that question, from anyone.) Hamas is under no obligation to ever end it's vigilance against Israel. Therefore, Israel can't talk to Hamas if they aren't even listening.

4. About the phrase, "Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

"But since 1967 it has been Israel that has missed most opportunities: a 40-year occupation (against the advice of its own elder statesmen); three catastrophic invasions of Lebanon; an invasion and blockade of Gaza in the teeth of world opinion; and now a botched attack on civilians in international waters. Palestinians would be hard put to match such cumulative blunders."

All of the above 'missed opportunities' by Israel was Israel acting in SELF DEFENSE.

And yet, and yet...you don't mention the Palestinian's REQUIREMENTS for peace, that Israel has missed opportunities with so often.

The major one of these is, "the Right of Return." This means, any Palestinian Arab with a claim to land that they were kicked out of can return and live in Israel.

That's like offering Texas to the Mexicans. The Arabs would immigrate by the millions, disrupting the demographics of this Democracy, making it no longer Jewish.

Meanwhile, 2 things:

A. Israel asked all of its Arab citizens NOT TO LEAVE during the war of 1948. It was the ARAB COUNTRIES who told their fellow Arab's to vacate or be killed by the Israeli's. This problem was started by propaganda, and is continued by propaganda, which has no basis in reality.

B. Don't you know that hundreds of thousands of Jews were KICKED OUT OF Arab countries from Iran to Syria and will NEVER BE LET BACK IN? So why does Israel have the burden of repatriating citizens that left OF THEIR OWN VOLITION?

5. "But Palestinians face the same conundrum as every other oppressed people: all they have with which to oppose an established state with a monopoly of power is rejection and protest"

Or, they could try negotiating openly with America as the mediator to legitimize Palestinian claims and demands. Oh, except for the fact that, anyone who collaborates with Israel is demonized as worse than an Israeli/Jew. So, there is no real chance for peace, because of the abiding social/cultural phenomenon among Arabs that Israel is the devil, and anyone caught thinking differently is simply tortured and killed.

p.s. since when is 'rejection and protest' characterized as suicide bombings?

6. "We should beware the excessive invocation of “anti-Semitism.” A younger generation in the United States, not to mention worldwide, is growing skeptical."

Thankfully, most of us in America have not had much experience with anti-semitism, or Jew hating (unless you are in the deep south.) However, hatred of Jews blatantly exists, as shown by Internet commenters, biased media reporting, and anti-zionist movements.

Our catch phrase is , "Never Forget." Never forget the lessons of WW2. That another Holocaust is right around the corner. That Sudan and Darfur can happen to anyone, at any time. The only way to fight against this is constant vigilince, and to project strength. Perhaps if the minorities in sudan and Darfur had their own powerful nation state, their genocide would not have happened.

I am well aware that most of the world hates Jews. And saying that over and over again is meant to remind us of that, not delegitimize its validity. Excuse us for being hated.

7. "Along with the oil sheikdoms, Israel is now America’s greatest strategic liability in the Middle East and Central Asia. Thanks to Israel, we are in serious danger of “losing” Turkey: a Muslim democracy, offended at its treatment by the European Union, that is the pivotal actor in Near-Eastern and Central Asian affairs."

I don't know if Turkey is really that big an 'ally' of the U.S. They certainly jumped at the chance to appease their Muslim citizens by severing ties with Israel. And they are certainly headed towards Sharia law, which would end any really alliance with any non-muslim country.

In any case, this op-ed was full of glaring errors and misconceptions, as ANY NYT article would be. Israel is a Democracy under siege ever since it's inception, and nothing about that has changed. No op-ed that does not take that into consideration is worth the Internet bandwidth that is used to write it on.

Rebuttal To Jumanah Imad Albahri

Her blog post can be found here.

In it she defends herself against the attack of David Horowitz, who asked her, "Do you support Hamas?" She refused to answer, saying,

"I am not a member of Hamas, nor have I ever given support to Hamas, nor do I agree their actions or stances wholesale, but I refused to offer Mr. Horowitz a blanket condemnation of Hamas that night. I felt that doing so would be a blanket condemnation of the Palestinian cause."

"My opinion of Hamas is not as simple as condemn or condone, “for it” or “against it.” I firmly believe that the killing of civilians, even as “collateral damage” regardless of creed, politics, sexuality, nationality, or ethnicity is one of the highest crimes in the eyes of God and is morally reprehensible and abhorrent. But I condone Hamas in its ambition to liberate the Palestinian people."

Let's clarify this. Let's say there was a Israeli terrorist organization called Jamas. Let's say this organization had as it's mission statement, "the destruction of all Islamic Arabs in order to ensure the survival of the Israeli and Jewish people forever." Let's say, this organization Jamas put guns in the hands of infants, had a history of killing regular innocent every day people because they are Islamic, and stated repeatedly that they won't stop until every Islamic Arab is killed. EVERY ONE.

Now, lets say you asked me, "Do you support Jamas?" And I said, well, its not simple, because while I don't support killing innocent people, I do support Israel's right to exist peacefully.

And you said, "No, that is not an answer, do you or do you not unequivocally support Jamas? The organization that has sworn to kill every Islamic Arab?"

And I said, I believe killing civilians is the highest crime against God, but I do support Jamas' goal of the safety of the Israeli people.

How do I look in your eyes now? Because how can you support the ends by ignoring the means? You can't condone Hamas' goals of the 'liberation of the Palestinian people' without condoning their methods. It's that simple. And nor could I condone a murdering band of freedom fighters who want to keep Israel safe.

You could say, "I condone Jamas' ends, of the safety and lasting existence of the Israeli people, but I decry the methods of Jamas to obtain those ends."

THAT IS DIFFERENT, than saying, I don't condone the murder of innocents, but I do condone Hamas' goal of the liberation of the Palestinian people. Because you aren't condemning their methods, you are therefore implicitly condoning what they need to do to reach their goal.

This may seem like a fine line, but it is extremely important when dealing with such volatile issues, emotions, and perceptions.

So, Ms. Albhri, regardless of whether you think you were railroaded by Mr. Horowitz into making statements, the statements you HAVE made show you still don't know what you are talking about.

If Aliens Existed, We Wouldn't Even Know It

You know, I should probably actually THANK the New York Times for their idiotic op-ed columns, without which, I would not have cannon fodder for my blog. So, yea, uh, thanks. For your ridiculous stupidity.

Today's rant comes from a column about extraterrestrials. (Blog link posting is giving me errors today, so just check out nyt.com columnist Paul Davies from May 13th.)

This columnist is discussing how we can find alien life on other planets by first trying to recognize alternate based (not carbon/oxygen based) life on our own planet. For instance,

"Alternative microbes might, for example, have different chemical elements. One shrewd suggestion, made by Felisa Wolfe-Simon of the United States Geological Survey, is that phosphorus — crucial to life as we know it — could be replaced by arsenic. She and her colleague Ron Oremland are dredging bugs from arsenic-contaminated Mono Lake in California in search of arsenic life."

Well, that makes sense, kind of. As if any other kind of alien could guess OUR life form biology from mere guess work. And then actually find it in the most simplistic of places.

Anyway, my argument against this perspective is: If an alien life is so outside of what we comprehend constitutes life...then how will we recognize it? How do we know there AREN'T ALREADY aliens floating around our heads; life forms that we can't even sense?

This is one of the major components of my own life philosophy. I believe that the human mind/consciousness is fallible, and extremely so. I believe that there is an infinite amount of things that we simply cannot sense, understand, or be aware of in any fashion.

For instance, my favorite example is radio signals. We know they exist. But we can't sense them. They are bouncing around our homes, our offices, but if we didn't know to look for them with specific equipment, we'd never know they were there. So, it is more than likely that there are any number of things floating around out there that we have no faculty for noticing them with.

Other examples are easy, just look at other animals. Bats use sonar, which we can't sense, but it exists. Dogs can smell things we can't even imagine (can you imagine a life form based on particles that can only be detected by smell? I can.) And then there are literally thousands of species with talents that we don't even understand. Watch the Discovery channel to see what I'm talking about.

So, in conclusion, looking for alien life with our existing human paradigms is simply blind ignorance. To not even consider the alternative, that we might not even be able to recognize alien life if it was in front of our nose, is hubris.

Hubris from the NYT? Say it ain't so joe.

The Middle East Black Hole

Another far off the mark NYT op-ed column has be gnashing my teeth yet again, so I bring it to you, my gentle readers, to make your own decision.

Beating The Mid-East's Black Hole - Roger Cohen
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/opinion/27iht-edcohen.html?hp

"JERUSALEM — The U.S. Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, has come and gone, again, with peace talks still on hold and one Israeli commentator, Yossi Sarid, musing that “the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a black hole that swallows up goodwill ambassadors through the ages.” "

"...I detect three developments. The first is Obama. The second is Fayyad. The third is what Danny Ayalon, the deputy Israeli foreign minister, called “the sugar-coated poison pill” of the Israeli status quo. I’ll take them in order."

"...Fayyad is obsessed with security — an obsession reflected in the now ubiquitous Palestinian Authority police on the West Bank — and with building state institutions and the economy. He’s not interested in Palestinian “victimhood.” Narratives do not a family feed. He wants a future. He believes nonviolence is the way to get there. He’s receiving some help from Netanyahu on the economy (but needs more) and security cooperation is ongoing."

"That meeting concluded with Mitchell saying: “You asked if I think Netanyahu is serious. They ask the same question. You are an expert on Palestinian and Israeli politics. They are the same. But no one in the world knows American politics better than me, and this I will say. There has never been in the White House a president that is so committed on this issue, including Clinton who is a personal friend, and there will never be, at least not in the lifetime of anyone in this room.” "

Those excerpts outline Cohen's main argument.

1. The Palestinian Prime Minister offers hope for peace? YEA RIGHT. I will believe it when I see it, not when yet another two faced Arab leader mouths fake truths in English, then goes around and laughs in arabic about how the Americans believed his BS.

2. What does an American President "so committed on this issue" have to do with Middle East peace?! Obama can't suicide bombers. He can't stop society based hatred. And he certainly can't stop Israel's enemies from planning her destruction over the course of decades.

Yet another note of false hope from the NYT establishment. Nothing is based on truth, nothing is based on reality, and it's all wishes and dreams and magic Obama to the rescue.

I have news for EVERYONE: Obama isn't a magical seed that will grow a beanstalk everyone can climb for peace. No one is. And until we put the onus for peace squarely on the enemies of Israel, not Israel alone, the status quo will remain. It's a good thing Israeli's are tough bastards.

NYT Columnist Actually Makes Sense (About Banks)

Normally, reading the op-ed section of the NYT prompts me to post confrontational response, since most of their columns show just how far they have their heads up their individual/collective asses.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by Krugman's thoughts today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/opinion/16krugman.html?hp

Apparently the NYT still isn't Fox News, no matter how wonky they may seem these days. Here Krugman is talking about how Republican shills for finance corporations (corporate banks) are on the surface seeming to fight for finance reform, but when you listen to what they are saying, they are actually fighting for the banks right to continue using us instead of serving us.

Anyway, thanks for the change of pace Kruggy.

Banks Laundering Mexican Drug Money

Wow. This is the biggest story I have seen in a while. This is a case of reading between the lines, and noting that the tip of the iceberg is only 2% of the actual berg itself.

http://rawstory.com/2010/03/wachovia-pays-160-million-stop-drugs-probe/

"Wachovia has agreed to pay US prosecutors 160 million dollars for its failure to stop drug money being laundered to Mexican affiliates, the DEA said Wednesday."

'Although Wachovia admitted that 110 million dollars could have been laundered, the DEA said "Wachovia failed to effectively monitor for potential money laundering activity more than 420 billion dollars in financial transactions with the CDCs." '

First of all, sure, let the bank execs get off the hook for laundering drug money that has probably led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, and much more law breaking. (Meanwhile, a 50 year old man in Texas has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for 4 ounces of pot.)

Next - $420 BILLION DOLLARS?! That is the amount of money they didn't 'check' for money laundering. A good portion of that could also be drug money.

Do you have any idea how much money the bank execs have probably already made, for decades, by laundering mexican drug money?

$160 million is a slap on the wrist. First of all, most of that is money the government KNOWS they made from the money laundering. $50 million of that is a fine. However, that $50 million is also probably drug money!

They should launch a huge fucking probe of this mess and bring them all down.

But they won't. Heck, if OJ can get away with murder, bank executives can get away with 1000 times worse, with 1000 times the money. God Bless Capitalism.

Israel Doesn't Want The West Bank You Idiot

Dear Thomas Friedman,

How can you be SUCH an IDIOT?

"Ever since Israel occupied the West Bank and its Palestinian population in 1967, Israelis have faced a dilemma: Do they want a Jewish state, a democratic state and state in all of the land of Israel (Israel plus the West Bank)? In this world, they can have only two out of three. Israel can be Jewish and democratic, but not if it keeps the West Bank, because the Palestinians there plus all the Israeli Arabs will eventually outnumber the Jews. It can be Jewish and keep the West Bank, but then it can’t be democratic; Arabs will be the majority. It can be democratic and keep the West Bank, but then it can’t be Jewish." http://www.nytimes.com//2010/03/17/opinion/17friedman.html

Israel doesn't want to live in the West Bank. They 'occupied' it in the interests of security. It is the birthing ground, staging ground, and launching pad of guerilla warfare AGAINST ISRAELI CITIZENS.

How can you miss this? Are you 1. Ignorant, 2. So egotistical that your thoughts outweigh real life, 3. Just stupid?

People like you, who are held up to be thought leaders and intellectual role models, are why people don't know wtf is going on at all anywhere.

Quote "Constructive Criticism of Israel" End Quote

I am truly sorry, but I simply do not respect any one who criticizes Israel. Now, I'm not saying, Israel is infallible. But, I have yet to find a critic of Israel who knows wtf they are talking about.

Take this NYT columnist for example:

His last sentence, summing up his argument, is the most illuminating, "Israel is wrong to mock its constructive critics. They alone can usher the country from the one-state dead end — a vital Israeli interest."

This is why I don't respect Israeli detractors. HOW IS ISRAEL SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST??!!

Not one, not a single damn Israel hater has ever shown me that they understand the fundamental issues that have created the middle east pressure cooker. Every single Israel critique always vilifies Israel, and Israeli policy, and points to the suffering of the Palestinian people, and never says, "On the other hand...", for instance:

1. The global community has spent billions of dollars in aid to the "Palestinian People." Where has this aid gone? Yassir Arafat, who won the Noble Peace Price for being two faced, stole every cent he could. The rest of the billions goes towards funding terrorists. Not at ending the Palestinians 4th world qualify of life. How is this Israel's fault?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/07/60minutes/main582487.shtml

2. Not once have any Middle East countries sued for Peace, except for Egypt and Jordan. When Egypt and Jordan said, "Let there be peace", Israel said, "forever and ever, our middle eastern brothers." Israel has asked for peaceful negotiations in good faith since 1948. Enemies of Israel never give it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt%E2%80%93Israel_Peace_Treaty
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Jordan_peace_treaty

Israel has one desire: To remain a Jewish state. If arab countries would take that stipulation into account, there would be peace. But they don't. They state again and again, whether directly or through proxies like Hamas, "WE DESIRE THE DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL."

How is Israel supposed to negotiate with that? NO Israel critiquer has ever even remotely attempted to tackle that question. So how am I supposed to take them seriously?

3. Israel is in a constant battle for its survival. If it wasn't "Little America", with all the military force that brings to bear, they'd be destroyed. Its that simple. Meanwhile, those wanting to attack it use civilians as shields, attack from hospitals, mosques, and schools, and kidnap innocents for torture and slaughter, in the name of "Freedom fighting." So, in fighting for its survival, Israel must contend with barbaric guerilla fighting that shows mercy to no one.

Remember this. Palestinians and Arabs attacking Israel are NOT fighting for peace. They are not fighting for a Nation State. They are fighting to destroy Israel.

No argument critiquing Israel acknowledges this fact. THIS FACT!!

Hamas charter:

Quotes:

"Israel, by virtue of its being Jewish and of having a Jewish population, defies Islam and the Muslims."

"Leaving the circle of conflict with Israel is a major act of treason and it will bring curse on its perpetrators"

"Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors."

PLO Charter

Quotes:

"Article 15: The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine."

"Article 19: The partition of Palestine in 1947 and the establishment of the state of Israel are entirely illegal, regardless of the passage of time, because they were contrary to the will of the Palestinian people and to their natural right in their homeland, and inconsistent with the principles embodied in the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the right to self-determination.

Article 20: The Balfour Declaration, the Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon them, are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood. Judaism, being a religion, is not an independent nationality. Nor do Jews constitute a single nation with an identity of its own; they are citizens of the states to which they belong.

Article 21: The Arab Palestinian people, expressing themselves by the armed Palestinian revolution, reject all solutions which are substitutes for the total liberation of Palestine and reject all proposals aiming at the liquidation of the Palestinian problem, or its internationalization.

Article 22: Zionism is a political movement organically associated with international imperialism and antagonistic to all action for liberation and to progressive movements in the world. It is racist and fanatic in its nature, aggressive, expansionist, and colonial in its aims, and fascist in its methods. Israel is the instrument of the Zionist movement, and geographical base for world imperialism placed strategically in the midst of the Arab homeland to combat the hopes of the Arab nation for liberation, unity, and progress. Israel is a constant source of threat vis-a-vis peace in the Middle East and the whole world. Since the liberation of Palestine will destroy the Zionist and imperialist presence and will contribute to the establishment of peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian people look for the support of all the progressive and peaceful forces and urge them all, irrespective of their affiliations and beliefs, to offer the Palestinian people all aid and support in their just struggle for the liberation of their homeland."

Those are the two organizations that Israel must negotiate with for peace with the "Palestinian People." Read those Mission Statements, and tell me if you an negotiate with THAT.

So every one you who thinks they can take the moral highground against a peaceful democratic state fighting for the survival of its citizens and their security - you're actually taking the low road. Because you don't know wtf you are talking about.

P.S. Do you remember the Munich Olympics of 1976? How Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and murdered Israeli Olympic athletes? This is what Israel fights against. To keep that from happening. Again. Meanwhile, it is Israel's responsibility to "...usher the country from the one-state dead end..." This kind of unreasonable worldview is why I will never respect anyone who doesn't keep that in mind, when talking about "Middle East Peace."

Government Can't Even Find Ants In Its Pants

The headline from Yahoo News today was, "

AP sources: Ill. prison to get Gitmo detainees"

"WASHINGTON – Taking an important step on the thorny path to closing the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the White House plans to announce Tuesday that the government will acquire an underutilized state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo." (Bold/Italics added by me.)

Please pay close attention to the phrase 'UNDERUTILIZED STATE PRISON', and then put your thinking caps on.

Now ask the question, "How can there be an underutilized prison when its a known fact that American prisons are insanely overcrowded?" And, "Why wasn't this prison utilized to its full advantage?"

Or doesn't the government know this about our prisons?

I'm a bit confused. Whats the deal here?

Obama's Muslim Affairs Advisor Confused Pot With Kettle

Okay, this is a new one for me.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6274387/Obama-adviser-says-Sharia-Law-is-misunderstood.html

In essence, Miss Mogahed (great name by the way) is President Obama's advisor on Muslim affairs. She's a Muslim woman. In government. So, she appeared on TV with a Muslim extreme, and discussed how we westerners have an 'over simplified' idea of what Sharia law is. First of all, I don't even know what that means. Second of all, she goes on to say:

"Miss Mogahed appeared alongside Hizb ut Tahrir's national women's officer, Nazreen Nawaz.

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular "man-made law" and the West's "lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism".

They called for Sharia Law to be "the source of legislation" and said that women should not be "permitted to hold a position of leadership in government".

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that "promiscuity" and the "breakdown of traditional values" were what Muslims admired least about the West.

She said: "I think the reason so many women support Sharia is because they have a very different understanding of sharia than the common perception in Western media."

So, basically, she is saying that we don't have a good idea of Sharia law is, and she nutshells it for us by saying, "1. The whole world should be Muslim and pay attention to Muslim laws, 2) secular laws are vulgar and destroying society, and 3) that women shouldn't be in government.

So, what the hell is she doing in government in the first place? As Obama's advisor, she's one of the highest placed women in Government in the WORLD.

In any case, I simply couldn't believe my eyes. For once, I can actually claim a similarity between Muslims and Jews. She is basically the Muslim equivalent of what are popularly called "Self Hating Jews." These are people who vilify Israel and Jews, and who agree with anything President Mahmoud Ahmadinejahd says about the destruction of Israel.

Many of these Jews...LIVE IN ISRAEL. So, if Israel is so bad, why not try moving!? And you, Miss, something-head, get the F out of government if you hate it so much, and believe you don't belong there. Otherwise, you're contradicting yourself before the first word is out of your mouth.

How do people get this dumb?

Iran Closes Three Newspapers - Hitler's Ghost Golf Claps

One of today's headlines is that Iran just shuttered three newspapers 'Critical of Ahmadinajahd.'

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2009/10/2009106141922771476.html

I don't know what took me so long to point it out - but Iran has become a de facto modern day Nazi state. I mean, I've been pointing out the symptoms for years now, but this is the first time I've come to this decision.

Lets look at the facts, Ahmadinajahd's Iran:

1. Has called for the destruction of Israel and has vilified Jews

2. Has imprisoned and tortured media critical of the President and state

3. Has held very questionable elections to prop up the dictator Ahmadinajahd

4. Has clearly the opportunity and resources to build an atomic bomb (something Germany never accomplished.)

5. Has a repressive society such that anyone breaking the rules might as well put a star on their sleeve.

6. Wants to forcibly turn every human being into one of their fanatic puppets.


Iran scares me. They are going to be the cause or major factor in the next World War, I guarantee it. Watch out President Obama, your job is not getting any easier.