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November 27, 2008
Jew-Hunting in Mumbai
Last night, my heart sank as I watched an Indian commando raise his automatic weapon above his head and blindly spray gunfire towards Chabad House.
I turned to Karen and said: “That is not good, that is not how special-ops roll. Not the real guys.”
Spraying and praying in a hostage situation?
My head was pounding and I got all of two hours sleep last night.
As of this writing, Friday morning, we know that five hostages in the Chabad House are dead. The body count will probably be higher.
Islamo Nazis came to Mumbai and besides attacking major hotels, centers of commerce, and tourist attractions, they went Jew-hunting. Yes, in a city where Jews are about as rare as the Dodo bird, Islamo Nazis spent months in advance gathering intel on where the Orthodox Jews of Mumbai gather and pray, and when the time came, they struck at these Jews because they knew there would be no consequences.
They went Jew-hunting because the world has come to accept the murder of Jews as a legitimate political act.
They went Jew-hunting because Israel has displayed, in the past few years, a shameful degree of political and military stupidity.
They went Jew-hunting because the U.N. has signaled that Israel is a rogue state and the murder of Jews is a heroic act.
They went Jew-hunting because the international left has aligned itself with the genocidal Palestinians to such an extent that every act of self-defense by the Jewish State is labeled a war crime.
They went Jew-hunting because they knew there would be no payback—ever.
But now that the shameful Olmert-Livni government is, at last, come to an end, perhaps a new government will steer a fresh—actually an old—and necessary course.
For after the smoke has cleared, the bodies counted, the period of shiva properly observed, Israel must take stock of its situation and come to understand, once again, that she is locked in a life and death struggle with international terrorism, of which the Palestinians are but a small cog.
If they kill one Jew, Israel must retaliate and kill a hundred terrorists. If a Jew is murdered by Islamo Nazis, then every Islamo Nazi on planet earth must know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he or she is a big fat target.
No more fear of using disproportionate response. The definition of war is exactly that, and only a leaky mind demands a policy of national security based on abstract notions of being nice.
The problem for Israel is that the Arabs count on the Jewish fear of the use of power. They also count on the Israeli left—surely the most delusional on planet earth—to enable inaction in the face of proudly genocidal Arab intentions.
Additionally, the Arabs do not fear or respect Jews or the Jewish state; they have contempt for Israel's reluctant use of power. And they prove their contempt every single day as they gather useful idiots from Europe and of course from Israel, in their skillful propaganda machine which works to undermine the very legitimacy of the Jewish state. This is Jew-hatred disguised as “mere anti-Zionism.”
Think of it, no other state on the face of the earth is faced with such unrelenting hostility. Sudan, and Rwanda, guilty of genocide, get a pass. Congo, locked in a barbaric civil war, has a death toll of 50,000 per month; no one cares. Liberia is a death machine so grotesque the MSM can't even write about it.
For too long it has been open season on Jews. During his disastrous tenure, Ehud Olmert enshrined inaction and appeasement as official doctrine. He and his government allow rockets and missiles to rain on Israel, and yet supplies gas, power and food to Gaza, to the very regime hurling these missiles. In short, the welfare of Gazans, the very people who voted for the genocidal Hamas regime, is, to the Olmert and Livni regime, of higher value than the citizens of Israel.
The first and primary duty of government—any government—is national defense.
All else, is secondary.
Islamo Nazis, in a country of miliions and millions of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, sought out a handful of Jews, a minority of minorities, because they hate Jews, because they want Israel wiped off the face of the earth, and because they have absolutely no fear of retribution.
This calculus must change.
The long arm of Jewish vengeance must be felt in every corner of the world—or no Jew will ever be safe.
The Masai tribe, known for their bravery, live by a simple code: “He who goes forward into battle may die. He who retreats will surely die.”
Israel must stop retreating.
Or the Jew-hunting will never end.
Update:
It is our sad duty to report that it has now been confirmed that Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg were murdered. May Ha-Shem avenge their blood. May their relatives be comforted among the mourners of Zion. Their two-year old son Moshe survived, rescued by by his courageous Indian caretaker. Reports state that Moshe's clothing was covered in blood and his parents were “unconscious.” I believe that Rabbi and Rebbetzin Holtzberg Z'L were murdered during the initial assault while shielding their son, shot down in cold blood by Muslims who believe that Jews are nothing more than pigs and monkeys, as it is written in the Qu'ran.
Full story at Chabad org.com.
My good friend Breath of the Beast writes in white hot anger, but with deadly accuracy, that the mainstream media is already in overdrive, dehumanizing and demonizing Rabbi and Rebbetzin Holtzberg as missionaries and ultra-Orthodox. You see, it's okay to kill ultra-Orthodox Jews. They're too Jewish. In contrast to the Islamo Nazi terrorists who are, you know, not really Muslims.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:55 PM | Comments (53)
Commandos Storm Chabad House in Mumbai
Indian special forces rappel from a helicopter to the Chabad house in Mumbai.
Storming strongly fortified positions held by terrorists who have no moral compunctions about slaughtering innocent men, women and children is, at best, playing the devil's arithmetic. We can only hope that the Indian special forces have the proper intel and are well trained.
Once again, Jews, no matter on what shores they stand, become targets of Islamo Nazis. Look for the talking heads to blame Israel, the Mossad, President Bush, the war in Iraq, and America's "powerful Israel lobby" for this latest atrocity from the religion of peace.
Indian commando forces inside the Chabad House were trying to eradicate the building of terrorists, Israel Radio reported early on Friday.
The rescue operation has been underway for over two hours.
According to the report, gun shots were being fired every few minutes and Special Forces continued to enter the five-storey building via the roof, rappelling from military helicopters.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 PM | Comments (10)
Child of the Pilgrims
Barbara Bates contemplates a yummy Thanksgiving.
We are all the children of the Pilgrims, a deeply religious people who considered making Hebrew the official language of this new land.
“Shalom y'all.”
The Pilgrims, as learned in the Torah, as they were in the Christian Bible, saw themselves in the mold of the Children of Israel escaping Egyptian bondage. And so, to thank G-d for surviving their harrowing journey across the sea, and for their prosperous harvest, they instituted a celebration of Thanksgiving, a feast modeled on the Jewish holiday of Succot. They invited the local Indians to share in the simcha, the joyous feast, and this holiday has been a great American tradition ever since, officially enshrined as a national holiday in 1863 by Abraham Lincoln, even as the Civil War raged.
It is a deeply religious American holiday.
At the Casa Avrech Thanksgiving table, we have a tradition. Each of us expresses our gratitude for something.
And every year I say: “I'm grateful that Karen married me.”
Karen goes: “Oh, you always say that.”
I'm like: “Well, I just get more grateful every year.”
And the kids look at each other and roll their eyes because, really, who wants to see their father make moo-cow eyes at their mother. It's totally, eeeuuw.
Anyway, there's Muslim terror in Mumbai, India. Muslim Terror in Afghanistan. Muslim terror in Iraq. Muslim terror in England. Muslim terror in France. Muslim terror in Denmark. Muslim Terror in Holland. Muslim Terror in Sudan. Muslim Terror in Somalia. Muslim terror in Yemen. Muslim terror in Iran. Muslim terror in Malaysia. Muslim terror in Gaza, Muslim terror in Israel. Muslim terror plots in America that we don't even hear about because the Bush administration has kept us safe for seven years. Gosh, my fingers are getting positively numb and I haven't even begun listing all the Muslim terror hot spots on planet earth.
And yet, I am still grateful that I married Karen, grateful that I am an American, and though my ancestors are European shtetl Jews, I am a proud child of the Pilgrims.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a happy Thanksgiving.
Mumbai Update II: The eight hostages released from the Chabad House were local Indians, for whom we are are very glad. But not Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Hotzberg, his wife Rivka, their family, and other Jewish hostages.
It has been reported that an Israeli anti-terrorist unit is winging its way to Mumbai.
I heard an amazingly vapid exchange on CNN. It went something like this:
News Bunny: The insurgents targeted luxury hotels and such, why do you think they also targeted a Jewish center.
News Hack: I just don't know what their motive could possibly be. We'll have to identify the insurgents and then figure it out.
Really, can they be that dumb?
Mumbai Update I: Eight Hostages Freed from Chabad House
We must say Tehillim, Psalms, for everyone being held hostage by the terrorists, who by the way, have made a demand and gee, what a shock: “We urge the Indian government to return stolen Muslim lands,” the terrorists said in a statement.
Sound familiar?
I have an idea. Let's give 'em, oh, New York. And then maybe, Paris. How about London? Oh, wait, they pretty much have that city already. I'm not even talking about Jerusalem because useful fools don't even question the wisdom of such a brilliant geo-political move. They already handed over Gaza—nothing like Jews creating Judenrein territories at the bidding of Islamo Nazis—and we all know how well that turned out.
You see, terrorists always have a grievance, they always have just one more demand. They always have just one more piece of land that really belongs to them. And according to liberal thought, as I understand it, victim classes with pronounced grievances are given wide latitude to sow death and destruction in their wake because, y'know, they have been "marginalized." A deeply meaningless construct meant to excuse every sociopath, Jew and Christian-hater in the Muslim world.
The problem is, before you know it, your children and your grandchildren have no land, no country, no religion, no freedom; they are but prisoners in a vast totalitarian gulag called radical Islam.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:02 AM | Comments (6)
November 26, 2008
Jews Targeted by Muslim Terrorists in Mumbai
Muslim terrorists in Mumbai reportedly have abducted Chabad Rabbi Gabriel Holtzberg, his wife Rivka and their child. Indian television reported that six Israelis are being held hostage.
The Foreign Ministry has not confirmed the report, and its last official statement was that no contact has been made with them. It added that 20 Israelis are missing since the terrorist attack Wednesday night.
Indian media reported that a couple and their teenage son, none of them Israelis, were killed in the Chabad House, called the Nariman House. One terrorist also was killed. Gunfire occasionally has been heard from the building, which the army has surrounded.
At least 101 people, including five terrorists, have died since the attacks began, and 600 others have been wounded. The terrorists have held more than 250 people as hostages in the Chabad House, a hospital and luxury hotels.
Several other Israelis have maintained telephone contact from their eight floor hotel rooms. The Chabad website reported that "the situation is grim." Commando forces have arrived by sea and are battling the terrorists in an effort to rescue the hostage victims.
The sophisticated terrorist attacks, the worst ever in Mumbai and India, hit nine locations as Mumbai is involved in elections. The terrorists struck with automatic weapons and grenades.
And from the The Counterterrorism Blog, Walid Phares analyzes the emerging situation:
As we write this short early assessment of the Terror attacks in Mumbai, events are still unfolding in the financial capital of the sub Indian region. Counter Terrorism units are battling armed elements inside several buildings including the Taj Hotel where hostages have been seized, including foreigners. My first round of monitoring included a discussion with our colleague Animesh Roul who has also posted a report on CTB. I must credit a number of facts and assumptions to him including the projection that the perpetrators—although calling themselves Deccan Mujahideen—are in fact members or trained by Lashkar e Toiba/SIMI (who according to Animesh Roul now call themselves Indian Mujahideen). Here is the condensed report I discussed on Fox News, the BBC, Russia Today TV and other international outlets.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:38 PM | Comments (12)
Hollywood Blacklist: Hard Left
Day of Wrath, 1943, falsely accused
of witchcraft, a woman is about to be
burned alive.
This, from my good friend Dirty Harry:
The blacklist is alive and well in Hollywood. Los Angeles Film Festival director Rich Raddon, who seemed to have survived the left wing, fascist witch hunt finally buckled and turned in his resignation.
Not surprisingly, it was accepted:
Dirty Harry comments:
The message is loud and clear: Whatever you do, if you want to survive in this town, don’t give to political causes unpopular in liberal Hollywood. You will be named, outted, hounded, and harassed until you are gone.
And how do these McCarthyites live with themselves? They simply decree any cause they find unpopular “discrimination.” And yet these are the same moral illiterates who lionize those fifties blacklistees who defended, promoted, and covered for an ideology responsible for the enslavement and murder of millions.
Last I heard, Barack Obama and Joe Biden still oppose gay marriage.
To read the complete story, go to Dirty Harry's Place.
Let me add that this is not an isolated incident; it's endemic in liberal Hollywood. If you are a conservative, or, cue scary music sting , a Mormon, or an Evangelical Christian, it's best to keep your mouth shut, and your head down, or you will find yourself unemployed, and unofficially blacklisted.
And if you believe that marriage should be reserved for one man and one woman—how very paleolithic—well, for some enlightened souls that's bigotry and yup, constitutes hate speech.
One of the most interesting abuses of thought and language from the left is their latest bumper sticker battle cry: “The tyranny of the majority.”
They are referring to California voting that marriage should be defined as one man and one woman. As it as has been defined by every civilization and every major religion since time immemorial. Funny, I always thought that the tyranny of the majority is, y'know, democracy.
But, that's just me.
Anyhoo.
Rule of thumb: Hollywood liberals are only liberal when you agree with their brand of liberalism.
And here's my two cents, Help, I'm a Hollywood Republican.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:22 AM | Comments (15)
November 25, 2008
Holy Land Foundation Guilty On All Counts
A cartoon from the peace-loving Palestinian moderates
showing how Jooz feast on Arab blood. Hey, definitely hand over
East Jerusalem to the Arabs. And sure, expel a few hundred
thousand Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria,
because experience has shown how brilliantly that worked out
in Gaza. What could possibly go wrong?
H/T Weasel Zippers
Money from the Holy Land Foundation supported filth like the cartoon above that is wildly popular and influential among the peace-loving Palestinians. Remind you of anything? Yup, Nazi propaganda. Dead ringer, of course. The Islamic terrorists know effective Jew-hatred when they see it.
Rule of thumb: when you hear Islamic Charity, assume it really means: “Hey kids, let's kill some Jews.”
But like the man in the movie said: “Follow the money.”
And Karen is always telling me that movies are not real.
It's going to be a fab-u-lous Thanksgiving.
Hey, do you think the Obama administration, um, I mean the Third Clinton administration—oh yeah, that's change, w/out the fragile interns we fervently hope—is going to be as aggressive as George Bush in pursuing America's Islamo Nazi fifth column?
Only time will tell.
After more than 15 years of investigation and two trials, the Holy Land Foundation and five of its former organizers were found guilty of illegally funneling more than $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
The verdicts by a Dallas federal jury are a significant victory for the Justice Department, which streamlined its case after a mistrial last year and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex evidence presented in the massive case.
Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges.
To read the complete story, please click here.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:01 AM | Comments (5)
November 24, 2008
Surprise! CAIR Get Slapped With Summons
This is shocking, just shocking.
Terror-linked Muslim lobby's dinner turns into public relations nightmare.
Nihad Awad, director of CAIR, being served
a subpoena.
WASHINGTON – When the Council on American-Islamic Relations held its 14th Annual Banquet at the Marriott Crystal Gateway Hotel tonight, it was planning to raise funds and honor some of its supporters, but instead several top officials of the Muslim lobby group were served with a summons and complaint for various civil and criminal offenses.
Y'mean financing and supporting world-wide terrorism and Jew-killers in Israel is a criminal offense. Who would have thought?
The dramatic surprise, caught on video, was a result of the research work of the Mapping Sharia Project, headed by Dave Gaubatz. He personally served CAIR Director Nihad Awad at the banquet tonight while Democratic North Carolina state Sen. Larry Shaw, a CAIR national board member, was addressing the festivities.
Good to know your local Democrat is hard at work with a bunch of Sharia-yearning lunatics.
Four CAIR clients have filed a federal civil complaint alleging criminal fraud and racketeering against CAIR, a self-described public interest civil rights law firm. The lawsuit also names CAIR's national leadership as individual defendants.
Listen, when a group defines itself as a civil rights organization, chances are pretty darn good that it's a front for a totalitarian leftist movement and a bunch of rabid Jew-haters.
To read the complete story, and to view the video, please click here.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:26 AM | Comments (6)
November 23, 2008
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #192
Jayne Mansfield says: “As soon as I finish serenading my pets I'm
going to read the latest Haveil Havalim.
Ima on and off the Bima presents Haveil Havalim #192 The Thanks and Giving Edition.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:52 AM | Comments (2)
November 21, 2008
My Beautiful Neighborhood V
I went shopping for new running shoes at the West Side Pavilion. Parked on the top level of the structure. Spent about five minutes taking pictures of this fabulous yellow zip running through a steel grill. Barnett Newman could not have done better. Did you know that the average running shoe costs more than $125.00? Since when did running become so expensive? My mother used to spend like $2.50 on my favorite Keds or if I was really a good boy snazzy PF Flyers. I'm telling you, civilization is going to hell in a hand basket.
Spaces between building have a special place in the spaces of my heart. For my Teaneck readers, can you identify this space?
Last year Karen and I paid a visit to Bensonhurt, our old neighborhood in Brooklyn. The Italian wise guys have decamped to Long Island and Jersey, replaced by hardworking Koreans and Russian immigrants. But the streets are still chock full of incredible stuff. I'm pretty sure this is a vent, though it looks like a flying saucer from planet Nareshkeit.
I'm on my way to a script conference. Yeah, I spend a lot of my time—of my life—taking script notes. Anyway, I get into the car, pull out of my driveway and whoa, parked right in front of a neighbor's home—that's a whole other story, my neighbor used to be married to a big Hollywood star who, she tells me, totally abused her. Some day I have to sit down and get the full dish. Anyway, I spot this fantastic machine, but I have no time, I have to schlep to the Marina. So I put pedal to metal and head to the freeway. But how can I pass up such a shot? Helpless to my unfortunate impulses, I whip around the block at warp speed. Park. Fall out of my car. Whip out my trusty Canon, and: Snick! Snick! Snick! I'm all David Hemmings in Blow Up, sans Verushka. All of a sudden this massive guy climbs out of a truck and says: “What the hell ya doin'?” I go: “I like your machine, so I hope you don't mind but I'm taking a few pictures.” He growls: “You a photographer?” “I go: “Um, yes, I take urban photographs.” Okay, I didn't lie too badly. The big guy smiles happily and says. “You really like my rig?” I'm all fan-boy: “It's beautiful.” “Fire away, dude.” I forgot to ask what the Putzmeister does but I think it has something to do with concrete.
So, what would Friday be without footwear. Last week I invited our readers to submit footwear photos. First up is a bushel full of Crocs from Pearl. Our good friend from Toronto explains that her daughter Adina was having a birthday party and Crocs were the footwear of choice. Pearl just couldn't resist snapping this excellent photo. Thank you, Pearl!
Rahel was kind enough to send in this self-portrait in Teva Naot with this commentary: “Manolo Blahnik they ain't, but they're warm, comfortable and durable, and they're standing on a bit of Jerusalem ornamental tile. I hope this is OK.” More than OK, Rahel. I have a friend, an Australian film director, who owns a cattle station in the middle of Australia and when he shows me photos he's always riding a horse and wearing boots that look exactly like your Teva Naot. Thanks so much.
Karen says: “I think you're going to like these.” I'm all: “Like them, are you kidding? You're Joan Crawford in Our Dancing Daughters. You're Ginger Rogers gliding across a silken dance floor in Fred's arms.” Quick, I've got to get my top hat and tux. A few hours later, Karen limps into my office, wailing, and gnashing her teeth. “They're pinching my toes,” she sobs, “I tried moleskin. I tried everything. I have to return them.” Oh, the tragedy. Oh, the injustice. Like a soldier fighting a rearguard action, Karen courageously marches back to Loehmann's.
And a film, Light for Greytowers, by an Orthodox female director, who wants to arrange, for religious reasons, women-only screenings, is being discriminated against by, guess who, The Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival—probably financed by George Soros and J-Street—that's how Jewish this film festival sounds and acts. I can more easily visualize this film festival in, oh, say, planet Berkeley.
Memo to Israel: You are supposed to be The Jewish State. Jew-ish. Look in the Torah and Gemara for proper guidelines.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:06 AM | Comments (38)
November 20, 2008
Hollywood Stars and Their Pets
Doris Day and her Poodles, Paris, 1950, Modern Cibachrome Photograph 20 x 16 in.
I've got a flaming migraine and can barely function. Hence, I'm taking the easy blog-road and posting this almost surrealistic publicity photo of Doris Day and her poodles, by John Florea. Florea was a Life Magazine photojournalist who covered the bloody side of war and Hollywood glamour.
And oh, yeah, those whacky Persians have enough nuclear fuel for a bomb. But nothing to worry about here, the IAEA isn't sure Iran actually knows how to build a weapon. I feel sooooo much better.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:22 AM | Comments (14)
November 19, 2008
Obama: House Negro
“I hate Jews, Christians, Hindus, Catholics, Zoroastrians,
Negroes, and Americans. But, it's all your fault. I keel you! ”
I didn't say it, G-d forbid, nope, Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaida's #2 cut throat has decided that President-elect Barack Obama is more Barry than Hussein and has opened up with a salvo of trash talk:
In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect—along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—"house negroes."
Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."
Oh, that's much nicer than slaves. That'll definitely score points in Berkeley and with their buddy William Ayers.
The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.
I can see Jeremiah Wright using this as a power-point in his next rousing speech.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the latest message was just "more despicable comments from a terrorist."
The State Dept. Finally, they're outraged by terrorists. But Hamas, who have vowed to kill ever Jew on planet earth, well, nothing to get excited about.
The 11-minute 23-second video features the audio message by al-Zawahri, who appears only in a still image, along with other images, including one of Obama wearing a Jewish skullcap as he meets with Jewish leaders. In his speech, al-Zawahri refers to a Nov. 5 U.S. airstrike attack in Afghanistan, meaning the video was made after that date.
Obama wearing a yarmulke. I smell Jewish conspiracy here, engineered, no doubt, by those evil Jooz at the George Soros financed J-street. Y'gotta love it.
Al-Zawahri said Obama's election has not changed American policies he said are aimed at oppressing Muslims and others.
Oh, yeah, we're oppressing Muslims all over the place, like in Gaza, where the genocidal lunatics are hurling rockets at the dumb Jews who are supplying the Jew-killers with the fuel with which to hurl the Jew-killing rockets. I think I'm gonna hurl.
The complete story here.
The American homeland has not been attacked—except by a bunch of revolting Hollywood movies that have not made a dime, the chattering classes and the MSM—since 9-11, and the American people have pretty much forgotten that we are locked in a mortal dance of death with Islamic terrorists.
Well, now that the man Newsweek just compared to Abraham Lincoln—welcome to the new and improved Jonestown cult—is under attack, maybe they'll get angry and turn their wrath from Sarah Palin to the real enemy: Islamo Nazis.
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force. Your contribution goes to a worthy cause. Injured troops get tech equipment, laptops, cell phones, etc. All the of-so necessary hi-tech stuff that allows people to communicate, get jobs, create jobs, and hey, even get on-line and read great blogs like Seraphic Secret.
Look, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, or a member of the Whig Party, we all owe our wounded troops a huge debt of gratitude, so please, click the “make a donation” button and give, give give.
I'll be your bestest friend.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:48 AM | Comments (13)
November 18, 2008
An Alphabet of Movies
Ziegfeld girl and Jewish silent film star
Anna Held cranks a Mutoscope.
My friend Dirty Harry tagged me to list movies, any movies, using the alphabet as my guide. Now that's a great idea.
Confession: I only list movies that I like or love.
As always, I will have nothing to do with propaganda films made by Communists or facists, no matter how talented. These are filmmakers who propped up genocidal regimes and aided—remember movies are moral and immoral landscapes—in the torture and murder of millions of innocent people. Goodbye Leni Riefenstahl, Sergei Eisenstein and of course the useful European fools with cameras: Costa Gavras and Gillo Pontecorvo.
For this list I've decided to concentrate heavily on silent films and films from Hollywood's golden age.
You know why?
Imagine if you attended high school, then college and never studied Shakespeare or the western classics? Just started off with modern lit., say a bunch of narcissists like Roth, Bellow, and Updike. You'd be getting kind of a narrow education, right?
Oh, wait, that's exactly what's happening in many American colleges right now. Who cares about the scrawlings of dead white males?
Anyhoo, if you don't watch great silent and classic films, you're missing out on some of the most glorious and important chapters in movie history.
Just saying.
Okay, here goes:
The Awful Truth, 1937, One of the finest screwball comedies of all times. Cary Grant was a superb craftsman who understood that properly modulated reaction shots were the secret to effective film comedy. Irene Dunne, quietly underplaying her roles, was one of the greatest screwball actresses in Hollywood—evuh. What's the awful truth? Cary and Irene are desperately in love even as they are getting a divorce.
The Big Parade, 1925. King Vidor's stunning look at an ordinary man caught up in the meat grinder of World War I. John Gilbert was a matinee idol who flamed out on booze and babes, but here he proves that he was much more than just a pretty face. One of the glories of the silent screen.
Still from City Lights. Charlie Chaplin
with Virginia Cherril, the first Mrs. Cary
Grant.
City Lights, 1931 My very favorite Charlie Chaplin film. A beautiful blind flower girl needs money for an operation so she can regain her sight. Sure, it's sentimental hokum, but the story builds beautifully and if the last shot doesn't rip your heart from your chest, well, you don't have a heart.
Day of Wrath, 1943. Witchcraft in 17th century Denmark. The Nazis suspected that director Carl Dreyer was making a parable about the persecution of the Jews. They were right. One of the greatest films ever made—by a devout Christian.
Easy Living, 1937. Jean Arthur gives one of the best performances of her career in this depression-era comedy where bedrooms are as large as the Coliseum. And where men and women duel with clever words until they realize that, ah yes, they are in love. A silken screwball comedy.
Flaming Youth, 1923. Colleen Moore, according to F. Scott Fitzgerald, was the flame who lit the Jazz Age and this was the film that got the age rolling. In 1923 Moore was making, get this, $12,500 a week. Those were the days before income taxes when a dollar actually had some buying power. Moore was an electrifying and adorable screen presence and now she's all but forgotten and that is a tragedy.
Grandma's Boy, 1922. The three great silent film comedians were: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. Lloyd's films had the tightest scripts. There are numerous set-ups and pay-offs that are so clever they just take your breath away. Lloyd always said that this 60-minute film was his personal favorite. A hopeless coward learns to be a hero with the help of his tiny but indomitable grandmother, and in the end Lloyd gets the girl. Simple, and oh so elegant.
He Who Gets Slapped, 1924. The great Lon Chaney stars as a brilliant scientist who is cheated out of his discoveries and ends up as a clown in a circus—who gets slapped every night. Sounds sick right? I guess. But it's got organic logic. Victor Sjostrom directs with a steady and poetic hand, and it all comes together in a little known classic. Norma Shearer, not yet a star or Mrs. Irving Thalberg, co-stars a Consuela, the bareback rider.
Intolerance, 1916. D.W. Griffith not only pioneered film technique, but taught film audiences how to read the thinking processes of movie characters. The magnificent crane shot in the Babylon sequence still has the ability to overwhelm the jaded modern viewer. In his declining years, Griffith used to visit Yiddish theater stars Molly Picon and Jacob Kalich, get hammered on Slivovitz while the duo would entertain D.W. with Yiddish melodies.
Joan the Woman, 1917. The early, cinematically ambitious Cecile B. DeMille, before he became master of the leaden biblical epic: “Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!” A World War I soldier finds himself transported back in time where he meets and is inspired by Joan of Arc.
The Killers, 1946. Burt Lancaster in his screen debut. Ava Gardner was never better as the femme fatale. Crackerjack screenplay by Anthony Veller, Richard Brooks and the uncredited Walter Huston. The ultimate film noir.
The Last Command, 1928. Josef von Sternberg sans Marlene Dietrich. Here, Emil Jannings plays a former Tzarist General reduced to playing a Tzarist General in a Hollywood movie. A stunning work about love, politics and movies with William Powell and the smoldering Evelyn Brent who ended her days, tragically forgotten, in a small Westwood apartment.
My Best Girl, 1927. Mary Pickford started with D.W. Griffith but they repeatedly clashed because Mary refused to conform to Griffith's reductive Victorian view of women. Pickford pioneered a more naturalistic style of acting, more suited for film. In this movie she plays a stock girl in a department store who shows the ropes to the new guy, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, who's “pretty dumb.” Mary doesn't realize that he's the heir to the department store fortune working undercover to learn the business.
Night at the Opera, 1935. This is my very favorite Marx Bros. movie. Did you know that Buster Keaton worked on the script? The stateroom scene might be the funniest movie scene ever filmed.
Of Human Bondage, 1934. Bette Davis as Mildred, the blond cockney slattern, rips up the screen as she spits out her lines, contempt heaped upon contempt, reducing the nebbish Leslie Howard to a quivering hulk of nothingness. This is the role that made Bette Davis a star.
Pandora's Box, 1929. Off-screen, Louise Brooks was a nymphomaniac, a dipsomaniac and a self-destructomaniac, so when she was tapped by G.W. Pabst to play Lulu, it wasn't much of a stretch. No wonder she didn't bother reading the script. Brooks ended up as the mistress of various rich men, a sales girl in Saks Fifth Avenue, a call girl and finally as a snarling old lady living in a one room apartment in Rochester N.Y.
The Quiet Man, 1952. John Wayne returns to Ireland to reclaim his family's farm. He meets and falls in love with fiery Maureen O'Hara. Stuff happens. Most of it involved with a dowry. John Ford caresses the Irish countryside like a long lost lover.
Red Dust, 1932. A Pre-Code Hollywood gem. Gable and Harlow starred in six movies together and they were a combustible pair. In this yarn, Harlow plays Vantine, a B-girl—I'm pretty sure that's movie talk for prostitute—who is on the run from G-d knows who and what. So, naturally she schleps upriver to a totally gross rubber plantation in Indochina—before Ho Ch Minh got all kvetchy—and cracks wise to Clark Gable until he reels her into his manly embrace. And then Mary Astor shows up. Total oy-vey.
Sadie Thompson, 1928. Gloria Swanson is best remembered as the unhinged former silent screen star—“We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!”—in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard. But she was a great star of the silent screen and never unhinged. Sadie, yup, another B-girl, arrives in Pago Pago to start over—in Pago Pago?!—Fat chance.
The Toll of the Sea, 1922. Anna May Wong, the great American-Chinese actress was 15-years old when she starred in this silent movie. Her performance is disciplined and unusually understated for one so young. This is also the first film to make use of the duo-tone color process. Lovely and sad this movie is also a deeply sympathetic look at the troubled Chinese-American race relations.
Anna May Wong
Unfaithfully Yours, 1948. Preston Sturges had a run of top-flight screwball comedies at Paramount that still leaves yours truly in awe. He wrote, produced and directed. Talk about talent. Unfortunately, he also drank. A great career down the toilet. Rex Harrison, brilliant but insanely jealous, suspects his wife, Linda Darnell, of infidelity, as he conducts a symphony. Darnell, a star-struck Texas beauty queen, arrived in Hollywood with a pet chicken in a cardboard box, and a parasitic family on her coat tails. She fell apart under the star machine almost instantaneously. But Sturges coaxed a superb performance out of the fragile girl.
Vertigo, 1958. Jimmy Stewart, a retired San Francisco policeman falls in love with a dead woman. That's the set-up. Hitchcock takes his sweet time with tons of exposition. Yet it works. Kim Novak, who escaped from the clutches of Harry Cohen only to fall into the clutches of Hitchcock, is reduced to mannequin status. But again, it works, because basically she's playing a corpse. When Brian De Palma and I were working on Body Double we screened Vertigo. And when the film ended Brian cackled appreciatively and I just sat there stunned, wondering how Hitch pulled it off. A towering achievement.
Wings, 1927. The first great air combat movie. The dog fights still send shivers up my spine. The film cost 2 million dollars and in 1927 that was a lot of money. Clara Bow has a supporting role but, as always, she is brilliant and her reveal, Bow's lovely and lively face popping up from behind a pair of undies on a wash line, is simply brilliant. William Wellman, a veteran of the Lafayette Escadrille, was just 22-years old* when he directed this masterpiece. Gary Cooper, ahem, discovered by the amorous Bow, has a small but memorable role.
*Correction: Wellman was 21-years old when he joined the Lafayette Escadrille and 31-years old when he directed Wings.
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, 1998. Actress Joan Chen directed this moving story that takes place during Mao's genocidal Cultural Revolution. A young girl is sent to the countryside to learn how the peasants live. Soon, she discovers that she's never going to return home. She struggles against corrupt local party officials. I spent time in China scouting locations for a film that never happened and heard similar, heart-breaking stories.
You Only Live Once, 1937. Henry Fonda is the star of this movie but it's Sylvia Sydney's—born Sophia Kosow—beautifully modulated performance that makes the story hold together so perfectly. It's the classic bad-boy, good-girl yarn. Ace cinematographer Leon Shamroy molds velvety shadows around the doomed lovers with the artistry of Rembrandt.
Zulu, 1964. Ninety British soldiers against several thousand determined Zulu warriors in the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 1879. No reason to fight, really, except they are there and honor demands it. The choreography of the battle scenes is like an Astaire-Rogers dance scene except with agony, blood and death. We understand the simple but deadly Zulu tactics and marvel at British resolve. Yes, indeed, once upon a time there was a Great Britain. No more, no more. One of my favorite war movies.
Dirty Harry has also tagged: Ed Driscoll, Kyle Smith, Christian Toto, MovieBob, Some Came Running, Self-styled Siren, and it all started with Blog Cabins.
I'm not going to tag any bloggers with this MEME—no idea what a MEME is, but I'm told that's what this is—so I'll throw this A-Z film listing to my seraphic readers. It's fun!
Okay folks, it's that time of year again. Please support Project Valour IT. Here at Seraphic Secret we ask that you make a contribution to the Air Force:
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:14 AM | Comments (37)
November 17, 2008
My Yeshiva Flatbush Bully, Plus Obama's Stunning Land for Peace Plan
Fade In:
When I was a student in Yeshiva Flatbush elementary school, my mother used to give me a small bag of potato chips as dessert with my lunch.
There was this kid in my class; he was huge and mean and absolutely off his rocker, and one day, this was in third grade, he came up to me and said: “Those potato chips are mine.”
“No, my mommy gave them to me.”
I was tragically innocent.
He said, “Gimmee, gimmee, gimmee, or I'm gonna punch you.”
I said, “They're mine, my mommy gave them to me.”
He smiled and punched me in the shoulder. Hard.
I handed over my little bag of potato chips.
And continued giving him my potato chips for the next few weeks.
One day I refused. I was fed up. I hated myself for being such a coward. Truth is, I was a scrawny kid and my bully was bigger and stronger and, well, kind of insane.
Anyway, I refused; “They're mine,” I logically explained, “and I'm not giving them to you anymore. My mommy gave them to me.”
My bully narrowed his eyes and said: “Give 'em to me and I'll never bother you ever again.”
“Really?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
I handed over my chips.
I believed him. I was a moron.
The next day—surprise—he demanded my potato chips.
“But, but you promised,” I stammered.
He punched me in the shoulder so hard that I fell to the ground like a slaughtered lamb.
Fade to Black
A few months ago, when Karen and I were visiting Offspring #2 in Teaneck, we also visited one of my old elementary school friends, Arthur W., who lives a few minutes drive from Offspring #2. Arthur W. pulled out our graduation yearbook and flipped through the yellowing pages.
“Robert, you look sick.”
With a shaking finger, I pointed to the picture of my bully.”
“Oh,” said Arthur W.,” he was really bad news.”
I nodded, and continued feeling sick for the next few minutes. My shoulder actually throbbed with phantom pain. My buddy kept throwing me sympathetic glances.
Israel is surrounded by genocidal bullies. They also make empty promises they fully intend to break.
Our articulate friend Joshua Pundit explains how Barack Obama is falling back—yeah, that's change—on the specious land for peace formula—because it worked so well in Gaza—as a final solution to the Mideast conflict.
To read Joshua Pundit's article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:31 AM | Comments (13)
November 16, 2008
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere: The Mama Rachel Edition
Ivanka Trump says: “Oy-vey, this conversion is harder than modeling, more difficult than being a socialite, far more intellectually challenging than Wharton. I have to learn the laws of Shabbas, Kashrus, modesty—there go my cute hemlines—and, who knew? the halachos of Family Purity. And listen, “The Apprentice,” why do you think we had all those adorable Orthodox boys on the show, huh? Hey, I have an idea for a new reality series; it is pure gold: “Ivanka Converts: Judaism's New Real Estate.” Sigh, I guess it's a non-starter. Anyway, look, this is no quickie Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe-style conversion. And I'm not like that crazy Madonna slobbering down, ahem, Kabbalah water. My baby doll Jared is the real deal and Rabbi Haskell Lookstein is like the Gucci of Rabbis, not one of those make-believe Rabbis who can't even learn a daf gemara. Rabbi L. even insists that I study Haveil Havalim every single week. As if I didn't have enough on my plate. And by the way, all you smarty-pants out there, Halacha holds that once I convert to Judaism you are forbidden from ever reminding me that I'm a convert. It's as if I was born a Jew. Am I a quick study or what?”
Haveil Havalim The Mama Rachel Edition is hosted this week by the straight talking, straight shooting, deeply Torah learned, West Bank Mama. We'd like to thank WBM for including our post, Hey Kids, Let's Watch Some War Movies.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:07 AM | Comments (9)
November 14, 2008
My Beautiful Neighborhood IV
I caught this lovely muted composition at one of my favorite places in Los Angeles:
The Griffith Observatory. Love the Agnes Martin-like muted tones that are punched through by little black rectangles into another mysterious dimension—the definition of modern art.
Ordinarily, I like symmetry. But asymmetry has its charms. I have a feeling
that the workers who were inscribing the concrete were not paying close attention
the day they were pouring. Look at the right corner, that's excellent. Now take a look at the left side. Ouch! Guys, next time lay off the Budweiser.
Believe it or not, this is a self-portrait by Karen. What can I say, the love of my life is shy. Look closely and you'll find a small portion of Karen among the many layers of this picture. Karen snapped this in lovely, downtown Oakland.
So: I popped three vegetarian burgers into the oven and then I thought, “I can do
something interesting with these things beside ingest them.” Hence, yours truly dribbled plain yogurt on the burgers, rooted around in my camera bag and pulled out two batteries, noticed that, my gosh, the positive side of the batteries mimics the look of the rivets on my very favorite fork. What could be more natural than to plant the batteries in the yogurt, lay the fork on the plate, and: Snick! Then comes the stunning realization that I cannot eat the burgers because, guh-ross, who knows what stomach burning acids have seeped into the food? Good grief, the sacrifices I make for this blog.
I know that we're in the midst of an economic melt down. Every month I get my financial statement and my heart pounds in my chest like a Gene Krupa solo. Next month I won't even bother opening my statement. I'll make believe it doesn't exist. Anyhoo, now I know things are really bad when NASA has to cut back so severely that their office is on Beverly Drive, in a not too spacious nor elegant shipping container. I mean, this is just sad. One gigoondoo step for mankind—backwards.
A few years ago, we flew to Baltimore to attend the Bar Mitzvah of our cousin Avi K. The simcha was held at the Pearlstone Conference Center. Over a hundred family members, from America and Israel, attended. This was a magical Shabbos, meeting and spending time with nephews, nieces, cousins, uncles and aunts, some of whom we barely knew. The Pearlstone Center is located outside Baltimore, in an idyllic rural area, and though I don't take pictures of trees, flowers or mountains—I'm an urban eye—I did manage to isolate this sc-fi like structure that looks ready for lift-off.
What would Friday be without footwear? Okay, so these are not exactly Manolo Blahnik. But there is a thematic tie-in. Trust me. Remember our cousins the K's from Baltimore? Of course you do. Well, they made aliyah to Israel. Last night I was chatting with Avi's father, my cousin Dr. Jonathan K, and he mentioned that in their household they all don very specific footwear at night because, brrrr, the floors are so chilly and G-d bless my good cousin and his wife Toby, who always provided a warm and loving home-away-from-home for our son Ariel Chaim ZT'L, for the four years he attended Ner Israel Rabbinic Academy in Baltimore. So: Here's the footwear our cousins wear in Mitzpe Netofa where the nights are freezing. Jonathan apologizes for the poor quality of the pic, explains that it was taken with the Mac Front Row application. Perfectly okay. And hey, friends, relatives, feel free to send pics of footwear, with commentary. It's a seriously important issue.
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a miracle in Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:09 AM | Comments (8)
November 13, 2008
Change, Well, Not Really
Israel's friendly Palestinian neighbors prepare for some change
along the Gaza border.
I'm on my way out the door to a script conference. Oh, please G-d, don't let the execs sit around bashing Governor Sarah Palin for the chit-chat portion of the meeting. They won. Can't they just be gracious?
Anyhoo.
My friend Soccer Dad has posted an invaluable analysis of President-elect Obama's probable playbook for diplomacy in the Middle East. I must tell you, we have seen this movie before, in the Carter administration, in the Clinton administration, and it always ends the same way, with lots and lots of dead Jews, and an emboldened IslamoNazi world.
I have a much better idea.
Do nothing.
Let the Palestinians earn the right to a state—though one could argue that happy-go-lucky Gaza is the Palestinian state—by acting responsibly and giving up terrorism. Believe me, if terrorism were taken off the table, that would be a game changer. Tragically, the Palestinians have built a toxic tribal culture that is reliant on violence, murder, intimidation and Jew-hatred.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:22 AM | Comments (12)
November 12, 2008
School Girl Crush
“Yo, Brother Barack, have I told you how I got my start in race
hustling? Two words: Tawana Brawley.”
For the past eight years, President Bush has been brutally and mercilessly pilloried by the dinosaur media and the chattering classes.
On Nov. 9, The New York Times, true to form when Republicans are in office, published an article revealing that, gasp, covert ops have been running down and killing Islamic terrorists in rogue states.
Memo to the clueless: America, at the moment, has military advisors, in approximately 45 countries across planet earth. We are fighting some very bad people, and some very decent, freedom-loving people need our help. Only liberals, it seems, cheerily surrender helpless women to honor killings, Christians to the rampages of murderous Islamic mobs, and Jews to the proudly genocidal intentions of the Palestinians and the totalitarian Persian state.
These people call their ideology of appeasement and defeatism progressive. Talk about an Orwellian use of language.
I suppose it never occurred to the editors of the New York Times that one of the reasons that the American mainland has not been attacked since 9-11 is that we've been on the offensive against the Muslim terrorists. Indeed, President Bush and his team have done their duty by authorizing black-ops against an implacable IslamoNazi enemy.
President-elect Obama, G-d help us, seems more inclined to extend Habeas Corpus to non-citizen terrorists—who do not serve under any nation-state flag nor wear any nation-state's uniform—and transfer them to general population in Sing-Sing. That'll be hilarious.
No wonder the dinosaur media has a school girl crush on President-elect Obama.
What will the media do for the next four years?
Certainly they won't pile on President-elect Obama. That would be like, y'know, criticizing the Messiah.
Oh, wait, they will be really mean to Governor Sarah Palin.
What could be simpler.
Silly me.
For the past eight years liberals have been the most ungracious losers this Republic has ever suffered—and now, revealingly, they emerge as equally ungracious winners.
And hey, look who else has a massive girlie crush on President-elect Obama: The People's Weekly World. Yup, the official newspaper of the American Communist Party. Good grief.
And what's Hollywood going to do?
Oh, dopey me.
Oliver Stone presents his next box office failure. Sarah Up North—Is Alaska Really a State?
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:39 AM | Comments (13)
November 11, 2008
Hey Kids, Let's Watch Some War Movies
My father, Chaplain Abraham Avrech, conducting
Jewish services during the Korean War.
Okay, after trying, really trying to cut approximately a million dollars from my latest script—ouch!—and putting in a call to my father, Col. Abraham Avrech, 42nd Division, Retired, and thanking him for his service, I'm gonna plop down on the couch and do what I do best: screen movies—appropriate for Veteran's Day.
Here's my list:
Destination Tokyo, (1944) offbeat casting with the debonair Cary Grant as the commanding officer of a submarine sneaking into Tokyo Bay to wreak havoc on the Japs. Yeah, they call them Japs on a regular basis. This film takes the time to explain why we're fighting a bunch of genocidal maniacs and why we're better than they are. Liberals beware, this is totally un PC, your brains will go into, heh-heh, complete meltdown.
Dark Blue World, (2001) from the ocean to the clouds. I don't usually recommend foreign films—except for Japanese and Chinese films, never French films—but this Czechoslovokian movie is fantastic. A Czech pilot is imprisoned by the post World World II totalitarian Communist regime. In flashback, he remembers the Czech pilots who flew with the RAF during the aerial war against the Lutwaffe, a little known corner of WWII history. This film has everything: great aerial combat scenes, a tragic love triangle, natch, tests of loyalty and friendship, and love of country. Technical credits are first rate and it's all wrapped in stunning performances. Highly recommended.
Zulu, 1964, the true—well, sorta—story of the Battle of Rorke's Drift, 1879, South Africa, where approximately 90 British soldiers fought against several thousand Zulu warriors. At one point a young bugler, lips trembling, asks the tough Sergeant: “Why? Why?” And the Sergeant, stiff-upper lip, as the British used to be, replies, “Because we're here, lad.” A young and incredibly gifted actor named Michael Caine makes his very first major film appearance as a foppish young officer who becomes a man in the crucible of battle. Zulu's score by the great John Barry, is one of the most memorable I have ever heard. During the Yom Kippur War I used to hum it to myself to keep up my spirits and remind myself that numbers don't matter, that in the end discipline, courage and fortitude triumph.
Wee Willie Winkie, (1937), O-kay, I admit, I have a huge soft spot for Shirley Temple. This film is my absolute favorite of her considerable and important body of work. Directed by the great John Ford, Shirley is in India, wearing the absolute cutest miniature British uniform you have ever seen. She gets all friendly with an Indian, ahem, militant who uses her as bait to lure an entire British column into an ambush. But fear not, Shirley will come to the rescue because she's so darned persuasive. Smirk all you want, this is a first-class movie with rock solid performances by Victor McLaglen and the awesome C. Aubrey Smith.
I'd like to know which are your favorite war movies.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:36 PM | Comments (32)
Veteran's Day '08
Edward G. Robinson, born Emanuel Goldberg, עמנואל גאלדנבערג visits
American combat troops in 1944.
Never forget the sacrifices that our servicemen have made for the cause of freedom here and abroad.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:56 AM | Comments (4)
November 10, 2008
Israel: The One Bomb State
Israel faces grave political and military challenges on all fronts. Terrorism via the Palestinians in Israel, Hamas in Gaza and a powerful Hizbullah in Lebanon are deeply troubling issues. But the greatest existential threat to Israel is Iran's single-minded pursuit of nuclear weapon technology and Shiite hegemony over the Gulf region. To understand the complex military issues involved Seraphic Secret has turned to our knowledgeable and close friend Air Force Officer for this sobering analysis.
—RJA
The Patriot Missile System.
In the nuke business, we occasionally run across the phrase “one-bomb state.” It's our way of saying that a particular nation-state would be decimated—economically, politically, militarily—by a single nuclear detonation. Estimating who can take what is an art, not a science as it's been sixty plus years since the last time an atomic weapon was used in combat. Figure Russia, The United States, and China are 20-25 bomb states, while most of the larger European nations are 10-15 bomb states.
Israel, however, is a one bomb state.
Of course, targeting and geography play a role. We assume that atomic bursts would be city killers when tinkering around with these equations. Israel could suck up a bomb or two in the Negev, just as the United States could absorb 20-25 in places like Nevada, Wyoming, and New Mexico. Properly diversified over a range of inconsequential terrain, of course.
But a thermonuclear air burst over, say, Tel Aviv? Fuggedaboudit. Kiss the wonderful little Jewish State goodbye.
In short, one-bomb state, because one bomb is all it takes.
So: Israel is right and properly freaked out over Iran and Syria pursuing nuclear technology, while the United States is right and properly freaked out over the possibility of a nuclear exchange in the Middle East. In fact, the two are so concerned, they're sinking billions into a multi-layered, highly robust missile defense shield right there over Israel and the Med.
The big newskie is this: the United States will be deploying troops to Israel to stand up an x-band radar, one that will be capable of detecting, processing, and alerting the authorities to a regional ballistic missile launch. Not exactly sure which country concerns Israel the most, but it's a pretty safe bet that this thing is going to be pointed in a easterly direction.
Now, U.S. troops have spent plenty of time in Israel on exercises and conferences—even real world situations like Operation Nickel Grass during the '73 War—but I'm fairly certain that this is the first time American troops have permanently bedded down in the Promised Land.
The x-band will process information directly to European Command, but, as I understand it, that information will be instantly shared with Israeli authorities. From there, Israel is free to power-up her missile defense assets.
Which, I might add, are becoming formidable. Here's the dime tour.
Arrow Missile Simulation
First is the Arrow, a theater ground-based system that's proved effective against simulated SCUD attacks. From what I can tell, the Arrow is a highly reliable system that forms the current backbone of Israel's missile defense infrastructure. You'll have to fact-check me on this, but I believe the Israelis have stood up three operational batteries of Arrows, which presumably is enough to withstand a large-scale short-to-medium range ballistic missile strike. However, as with U.S. carrier battle groups, missile defense relies on a multiple weapon systems effective at a variety of ranges. Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.
David's Sling. Biblical names just roll off the tongue.
Enter David's Sling, aka the 'Stunner', an Israeli weapons project still in the test phases. I can't really tell what DS is designed to defend against, other than, y'know, rockets. All the kinks are still being worked out, and it probably won't be operational for another half-decade. It's a terminal phase kill vehicle, but I haven't been able to gather whether or not it's a kinetic kill vehicle or if it's got explosives packed into the nose. I'm thinking this type of system could be used against Hizbullah's Katyusha rockets that were such a pain in the ass during the '06 Lebanon War. But with terminal kill vehicles there's an assumption they can be effective against local MRBMs (read: SCUDS).
So what to do with short-range rockets? Y'know, the nasty little Qassams that the terrorists fire from the Gaza strip and such?
One thing about the Jews, if Robert may allow me to positively stereotype here, is that they think of everything. Learned that when I studied in Israel. When Americans think of missile defense, they think of a shield from the heavy shooters: North Korea and Iran, even China. But when the Israelis think of missile defense, they think of missile and rocket defense. If it flies and carries a warhead, Israel wants to kill it.
Iron Dome, a rocket battery plus radar-detection system, um, theoretically.
That's where Iron Dome comes into play. Iron Dome is a 20-rocket battery plus radar-detection system designed to be deployed around urban centers. I think of that old arcade game Missile Command to visualize. If—and that's a big if—Iron Dome works, it'd render towns along Israel's northern and southern borders immune to Hamas and Hezzy rocket barrages. Of course that's the problem: no one knows if the thing works yet. And it'd take one radar + battery per urban center to guarantee effectiveness, which makes Iron Dome a pricey system of questionable reliability.
Rewind to the big picture.
There are two American systems that will come to an Israeli theater near you in the distant to near future. We all know the Patriot. That'll be deployed against baddies like Iran. The new kid on the block is the US Army's THAAD system, the Terminal High Altitude Air Defense System that's designed to work hand-in-hand with the Patriot PAC-3s that we're sending east. Though THAAD is still in development, it's achieved some phenomenal success over at the White Sands test facility in New Mexico. As the name implies, the system is designed to kill a ballistic missile at extremely high altitude, as the missile transitions from it's mid-course to terminal reentry phase. It's one of those "last line of defense" toys. We hope never to use them.
THADD, a terminal high altitude system, a last line of defense.
I'm not sure when, exactly, THAAD will be in Israel. A few years is my guess. The U.S. Army recently stood up a THAAD unit in Alaska which *should* be operational as soon as next year. When we start exporting? Who knows.
So let me wrap up with Iran. To answer the question that's no doubt lingering in everyone's mind: I'm not sure what impact this will have on Israeli plans to strike the Mullahs. At the moment, there's a technological race between Israel and Iran.
Iran to: A) develop a bomb and B) to shrink said bomb and mate it to a successful delivery system.
Israel to stand up a missile defense system robust enough to assure their safety from a full ballistic missile laydown.
If Israel starts to lose that race, they strike Iran. If Israel wins, there's a possibility that she stands behind her missile shield and assume a spin-off of the mutually assured destruction policy: “You shoot at us, you might get a SCUD or two through our defense. But we guarantee that your destruction is assured, irrespective of the success of your attack.”
Whether or not that's the proper course of action, well, you all can duke that out. Those are the stakes, those are the players. The game, from here on out, should be very, very interesting.
Crossposted on DefenseTech.org.
More articles by Air Force Officer:
Officer Rot in the United States Air Force
And hey, better late than never, Haveil Havalim #190, The Post Election Panic Edition presented by the deliciously named Jewlicious.
And oh gee, it looks as if President-elect Obama is moving quickly to usher in a new era of change, change that will make the world much safer for IslamoNazi terrorists. Yup, fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
Halls of Montezuma clip, H/T: Dirty Harry's Place
Thanks to all my readers who have sent in birthday wishes to yours truly. I'm very proud to share a birthday with The United States Marines Corps. This is the 233rd anniversary of their founding. I'm just a few years older. Semper fi!
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:39 AM | Comments (23)
November 07, 2008
My Beautiful Neighborhood III
I stumbled across this unexpected industrial landscape in my own
neighborhood here in Los Angeles. I love the lime-green and mocha
punctuated by that splash of blue.
Some of my very favorite places in Los Angeles are the driveways
between buildings. People dump all sorts of stuff in these spaces and I'm
always on the lookout for old signs and mirrors. Here, I struck gold.
Oh, a word of caution for those who might try to follow in my footsteps:
bums, junkies and winos are also fond of these driveways. Beware.
Just down the block from Casa Avrech, a neighbor propped a
mirror on their front lawn. O-kay, that's a cooperative, if eccentric
neighbor. I snapped countless exposures. Bliss.
Who says LA doesn't have architecture? Who says LA is cheesy
and vulgar? Not your faithful shutterbug. This charming burger stand
is what happens when classic LA moderne meets the final bloody
gunfight in Scarface, (1983). The only improvement would be a Kosher
certification so I could patronize this American landmark. As Kierkegaard says:
“We are born to suffer.”
Spectacular storefront on Olympic Blvd. Looks like it stepped right out
of post war Los Angeles when men donned snappy fedoras, women wore
stylish snoods and Benny Goodman's swing music made it necessary for
shoes to be resoled on a regular basis. I've driven past this store
hundreds of times and it is never open.
I was transfixed by the red line leading to the red posts
in the parking lot of a hardware store, B&B, in Culver City. The blue
sky pulls it all together. B&B Hardware, is, by the way, the best
hardware store in the known universe.
Okay, so Karen's newest footwear does not exactly fall into the
category of My Beautiful Neighborhood, but you know what, footwear
has become part of my landscape. Anyhoo. After a grueling day at work
and a lightning shopping sortie, Karen drops her bags on the floor and announces:
“I got new shoes, but I'm not sure you'll like them.”
I go:“Only one way to find out.”
As Karen slips into her latest purchase I grab my trusty Canon.
“Well, what do you think?”
I'm like: “Cute. Seriously.”
Memo to guys: 'cute' is the highest compliment one can pay to new footwear.
“Is the color okay?”
“Better than okay.”
In fact, Karen's new shoes are the offspring of Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers and
Greta Garbo's sexy spy footwear in Mata Hari, (1931). Now Karen has but to
click her heels together and say: “There's no place like Loehmann's, there's
no place like Loehmann's...”
Karen and I wish all our friends and relatives a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 07:47 AM | Comments (16)
November 06, 2008
Yizkor.com
Karen and I founded Seraphic Secret in May 2004 at the urging of our dear friend, Jackie Danicki, as we were casting about for an effective way to memorialize our beloved son Ariel Chaim ZT'L.
We are the sum of our memories, and when a loved one dies. It is remembrance of things past that nourish and sustain those who are left behind.
And so, it is with a great deal of pride that Seraphic Secret welcomes a new advertiser, Yizkor.com.
This website is a pioneering, non-profit initiative dedicated to permanently preserving the memory of Jewish men and women.
I have spent a great deal of time exploring Yizkor.com and yes, their offer of comfort, connection and continuity is accurate.
Yizkor.com has created a Jewish memorial site where you can post pictures, photos, and stories. Visitors can leave comments and words of comfort. You can upload videos or photo-video montages chronicling the life of the departed.
Possibilities are endless.
Yizkor.com is also a fine way to transmit Torah. Many who are niftar leave behind precious Torah scholarship that will never be published. Yizkor.com allows this Torah to be studied by countless visitors. Families and friends can harness the power of this website to transmit the precious writings of departed Torah scholars.
There's also a wonderful feature where you link directly to the charity of the family's choice. Visitors to the website have the ability to make virtual cemetery and shiva visits by leaving behind a story and memory—or just leaving a virtual stone. Too, visitors can learn about fallen soldiers, a most precious feature, and there is the ability to research the names of past community leaders.
Yizkor.com embraces the power of the internet to create, access, and share dynamic memorials. For many bereaved families, Yizkor.com assists in the healing process by uniting family and friends by drawing people together in a virtual community.
Yizkor.com ensures that future generations will be familiar with the legacy of their ancestors.
Again, Yizkor.com costs nothing.
Creating a memorial book is easy.
The layout and interface is simple and elegant.
Here's just one example of a memorial that just went right through me;
Yulia Tratiakova 1980 - 2001
May 18, 2001 - Yulia Tratiakova, 21, of Netanya, was killed in a suicide bombing at Hasharon Mall in the seaside city of Netanya.
Yulia Tratiakova immigrated to Israel about six months ago from her home in the northern Caucasus, leaving behind her parents and younger sister. Three months ago, she met her boyfriend, German, who had immigrated five years earlier. Yulia was taking a special Hebrew course for nurses together with German's sister.
Yulia Tratiakova went together with the Sorokin family to the mall on Friday morning, where Yulia and Vladislav Sorokin were killed.
Yulia is survived by her parents and sister, as well as by her grandmother who lives in Netanya.
Yulia, who very much wanted to live in Israel, was buried in Netanya.
I just spent a great deal of time navigating various memorials, and I confess that I have a lump in my throat the size of a walnut.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:18 AM | Comments (2)
November 05, 2008
Obama Supporters: The Day After
There's a new clinical designation called The Post Obama Election Syndrome. Here's a report on a sad and serious state that grips Obama's supporters from sea to shining sea.
You deserve a good laugh.
Let's roll the videotape.
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
Hat Tip: Dirty Harry's Place
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:43 PM | Comments (16)
President Elect Obama
“Boys, no matter who's elected POTUS, we daven for his health and for HaShem to give him wisdom.”
So: as Ohio, New Mexico and Pennsylvania go to Obama I turn off the news channel, click on my DVR library and screen a couple of old movies.
Karen is working at the bedroom desk.
The love of my life has this uncanny ability to hear the movie I'm watching and correctly evaluate its plot, the year it was produced—give or take a year or two—and even the film's quality. It's really remarkable because Karen has no special knowledge or interest in classic Hollywood movies. In fact, the sound tracks of silent movies—wall to wall scores—send her into a Homeland Security red-alert frenzy, so either I mute the sound or just screen the film when Karen isn't around.
Anyhoo.
At one point, Karen, without even looking up, says: “Boy, you really don't want to watch anymore election coverage, do you?”
Meaning, the film I'm watching is not so hot.
“True, true.”
A few minutes later, I'm blasted with a revelation and I hit the pause button on the remote.
“Hey, now that Obama's President does this mean that they'll stop accusing us of being a racist country?”
Oh man, wouldn't it be great if race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are, um, retired from their less than honorable industries.
Without missing a beat, Karen responds: “Robert, those who voted for Obama are not racists, the rest of us have to be sent to reeducation camps.”
Karen and I congratulate President-elect Obama and pray that he will use the awesome powers of his office with wisdom and justice.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:13 AM | Comments (8)
November 04, 2008
The Upside to the Next Four Years
Carole Landis tells Victor Mature: “Don't worry, Barack will save us.
Ohio has gone for Obama.
Ditto for PA, and New Mexico.
I'm gonna go and have a drink of something or other—something very strong.
Oh, wait, I don't drink. Liquor gives me migraines.
Okay, I'll watch an old movie instead.
Probably The Man From Down Under (1943) a little known Charles Laughton gem. And oh boy, get a load of the young and exquisite Donna Reed.
The next four years are going to be bad for America and absolutely ruinous for Israel, but here's the upside: an Obama administration is going to be fab-u-lous for Conservative bloggers for as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said: “The facts of life are Conservative.”
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 06:42 PM | Comments (31)
Election Prediction
Joan Crawford holds up the flame of liberty.
I'm a screenwriter. Don't know how to read a poll. But I do read bloggers who know how to read and interpret polls and Joshuapundit is among the best in the blogosphere. Here's his latest prediction.
My predictions are ... McCain wins, 286 electoral votes to 252.
As far as the battleground/states listed as toss ups go, I believe McCain will take Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, Arizona and possibly Virginia.
Obama will take Iowa, Colorado, New Mexico and possibly Virginia..although I'm calling Virginia for McCain. If Obama does manage to eke out a win in Virginia, McCain will win it 273-265.
Well, okaaaay. From Joshuapundit's mouth to G-d's ears.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:56 PM | Comments (4)
Black Panther Thugs at Philly Polling Station
As we pointed out the Democrats are adept at voter fraud and voter intimidation. In the City of Brotherly Love an, ahem, "security detail" of Black Panthers, a group steeped in violence, murder and Jew-hatred—read David Horowitz's amazing book, Radical Son—were present to secure a victory for the great uniter Barack Obama.
Jane Russell, a prominent Hollywood Republican, puts her
six shooter to good use.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:05 PM | Comments (1)
"Obama's Historic Intifada"
Obama has picked up another endorsement from the fetid swamp of Arab-Muslim extremism. An editorial in the influential Beirut newspaper, Al Quds Al Arabi, sizes up Obama as a President who will make America safe for the Islamists.
I have always said that the Islamic terrorists are evil, but hardly stupid.
... the probable election of Barack Obama to the White House and claims that with Obama installed in Washington, Islam will be able to “impose its point of view” on the world."
As to be expected, Atwan’s editorial decries the Bush administration because it is “controlled by Zionists… whose objective is to destroy the Arab world and Islam.” Displaying true Muslim conspiratorial thinking, Atwan further claims that all Middle Eastern countries have been under the control [of] Israel, even though the Arabs have the “largest wealth” in the world in petrodollars.
Atwan is merely echoing the feeling in the Mid East that a Barack Obama will look upon them with favor or will be so weak that he will not be able to stop Islam from “imposing” its “point of view” upon the world.
To read the complete article, please click here.
Meanwhile, in good ol' Chicago, where dead people, terrorists and Jew-haters reliably vote for Democrats, Bill Ayers, Louis Farrakhan and Barack Obama all voted at the same polling station. You just can't make this stuff up.
Seriously.
Seraphic Advice: Go out and vote. Do not pay any attention to the dinosaur media who are in the tank for Barak Obama and have invested everything in his victory. Various outlets will call an Obama victory early in order to suppress the Republican turnout, as was done in Florida in '04 where the GOP lost thousands of votes.
The only media you can trust is the blogosphere, talk radio or Fox news. The rest are corrupt to the core.
Pay attention to polling stations and look for Democrat/ACORN operatives breaking the law. They are very good at this. If you see any irregularities, report them immediately.
And read this article from The Jerusalem Post that explains, in detail, why voting for Barack Obama, is sheer lunacy—if you love Israel.
From Carl in Jerusalem this not so surprising revelation: Obama's terrorist buddy Rashid Khalidi's salary at Columbia University is paid for by America's good friends The PLO and the Saudis.
Recite Tehillim, Psalms.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:27 AM | Comments (8)
November 03, 2008
Nothing Matters
For the past few days Karen and I frequently turn to each other, break into grim laughter, and go:
“It doesn't matter. Nothing matters.”
We're always talking about Barack Obama.
Barack Obama worships in a Jew & America hating church for over 20-years. Obama then goes on to claim that he never knew that his mentor, Jeremiah Wright—stark, raving mad—held such, um, hateful views. Right. Sure. And then Obama informs the American people that he can no more disown Jeremiah Wright than he can disown a member of his own family. But of course a few days later he dumps the old racist because Wright has become a political liability.
Does any of this matter to the American people?
No, it does not.
Does it matter to American Jews?
Well, only to observant American Jews.
Barack Obama self-righteously vows to accept public financing for his presidential campaign.
He promptly turns around and breaks this promise.
McCain keeps his promise and accepts public financing.
Does this matter?
No, it does not.
Obama says that The Surge will fail, will make the situation in Iraq even worse.
McCain has been urging The Surge for years and his advice is 100% correct. The Surge is a success and the terrorists have been defeated in Iraq.
Does this matter?
No, it does not?
Obama, like Karl Marx, urges the redistribution of wealth.
Obama kicks off his political career, after a weighty career as a community organizer—code for socialist agitator—in the home of unrepentant American terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Obama pals around with Jew-hating, Palestinian terrorist Rashid Khalidi.
Terrorists in Gaza work the phones for Obama.
Obama vows to bankrupt the coal industry.
One of Obama's senior staffers, Jamillah Muhammad, is a radical community organizer, trained in the socialist tactics of the late Saul Alinsky, who lead anti-military counseling in Chicago during the Gulf War, steering young blacks away from supposedly racist military recruiters.
Does any of this matter?
No, it does not.
Any one of these outrageous associations, actions or statements would destroy another politician. But Barack Obama gets a pass.
It's a real mystery.
Which is why Karen and I laugh with no humor whatsoever.
But if Obama wins this presidential election, I don't think we or America will be laughing much longer for even now the Iranians are vigorously preparing for an Obama presidency. Yup, the Persians are building up their naval bases in the Straits of Hormuz. You see, while half of the American electorate have been brain-washed into a Mao cult-like following for a man who has zero accomplishments in his political life—save for getting elected—the Persians, who know how to kill Americans and Jews, are preparing to eat him alive.
And that matters.
Update: Here's something else that matters. Our friend JoshuaPundit, an extremely clever observer of the national political scene, predicts a McCain victory.
Meanwhile, Seraphic friend Jake Novak, hanging out at Obama election headquarters, heard some Jews talking about their ten top reasons for supporting BO.
10) "I've never actually read the Torah, but I'm sure there's something in there against voting Republican."
9) "Sarah Palin reminds me of my frum brother's beautiful wife... I hate her too."
8) "Wasn't there a great Jewish thinker who believed in wealth redistribution? Oh yeah, Leon Trotsky!"
7) "This will teach my grandparents for stiffing me with that fountain pen for my Bar Mitzvah!"
6) "As a religious Jew, I worry about those Christian Republicans who support Israel just because of a silly thing like... religion."
5) "I'm actually voting for McCain, but the women here are way better looking than the ones on J-Date!"
4) "This finally proves Jews have more self-destructive guilt than Catholics!"
3) "I'm just here to start the early application for a pardon for AgriProcessors."
2) "When Obama really ruins the economy, I won't have worry about getting off work for Shavous!"
1) "If I really wanted to do something to hurt Israel, I'd support Tzipi Livni."
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:21 AM | Comments (26)
November 02, 2008
Jewish Photography #20
Jimmy Stewart asks: “Say there, can a feller
get into Jpix even if he's not, ya know, a J?”
Jpix #20, The Post Succot Edition has just been published and gee, what a wonderful tour of the world by Jewish photographers.
We'd like to thank HP for including Seraphic Secret's entry, Teaneck Footwear Plus My Dougie's Flipout in this edition. Our pics are really family snapshots. Context is all. Enjoy.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:44 AM | Comments (2)
Best of the Jewish Blogosphere #189
Jimmy Stewart says: “Boy, you ACORN people sure
have some peculiar notions about getting out the vote.
Haveil Havalim #189, The Elections Edition is up and it's a comprehensive look at elections in Israel and America.
We'd like to thank this week's host Esser Agaroth for including Seraphic Secret's How to Get So Dead in This Town.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:03 AM | Comments (2)