Main

July 23, 2008

New York Times Sinking

Graphic courtesy of Wolf Howling

When New York Times editor David Shipley rejected Senator McCain's Op-Ed piece on Iraq, the blogosphere reacted with outrage.

How dare the New York Times publish Barack Obama's essay on Iraq and not give equal time to presidential opponent John McCain?

Duh.

I mean, come on, in what universe is The New York Times considered an objective newspaper?

In what universe is the New York Times not considered a hard left journal?

The New York Times does not hesitate to publish propaganda from Hamas on their Op-Ed page for crying out loud.

Personally, I'm delighted that Shipley, a former speechwriter for President Clinton, and the New York Times so flagrantly tipped their hand.

This outrageously biased and truly foolish action has handed McCain far more attention than any Op-Ed he would have published.

The NYT has disgraced itself, acting with all the dopey immaturity of a high school newspaper.

No wonder management recently laid off two-hundred NYT employees.

No wonder publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. refuses to give interviews to the media, unless questions are vetted in advance.

The dinosaur media is dying, through shrinking advertising revenues and subscriptions ebbing away at an astonishing rate. Editors and writers only compound the problem with coverage so biased, so irresponsible that, excepting true liberal believers, most consumers understand that half of what they read is not true and the other half is lies.

It's a fascinating and entertaining spectacle: deliberate corporate suicide.

And the breathless, uncritical coverage of Barack Obama only punctuates the dinosaur media's herd mentality and hard left bias.

It's funny, Seraphic Secret is a tiny blog in a huge blogosphere, but our readership grows day by day. I believe It's got something to do with honesty. When you drop in on Seraphic Secret you know what you're getting. We are observant Jews, religious Zionists, loyal American citizens who vote Republican, gun-owners, movie-lovers, devoted parents and grandparents, and we proudly proclaim our various biases.

For instance: The Seven Samurai is the greatest movie—evuh!

We do not pretend to be impartial journalists, as if such a thing is even possible. We don't even pretend to be journalists.

In contrast, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, all claim to be staffed by objective journalists who serve and inform the public.

And so, it's not a shock that those papers are dying.

No one trusts a clumsy liar.

New York Times Co. says its second-quarter earnings fell 82 percent from the year-ago quarter boosted by a one-time gain. Meanwhile, print advertising revenue continued to shrink. The New York-based newspaper publisher says its quarterly net income dropped to $21.1 million, or 15 cents per share, which included 11 cents per share in buyout costs.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected income of 22 cents per share in the latest quarter. Analyst estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenue dropped 6 percent to $741.9 million, missing the average Wall Street estimate for $754 million. Ad revenue slipped down 11 percent, hurt mostly by fewer classified ads.

Chief Executive Janet Robinson says business was hurt by the “U.S. economic slowdown and secular forces playing out across the media.”

Original story here.

And for an hilarious comment on the dinosaur media's love affair with Obama let's go to the video.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:59 AM | Comments (13)

November 05, 2007

The New York Times Has a Problem with Jews

The public editor of The New York Times, Clark Hoyt, recently gave a real spanking to the Sunday magazine and Deborah Solomon over her approach to the weekly “Questions For” feature. Next time he has the magazine on the brain, maybe he could get to a question that’s been bugging me for months: Does the NYT Magazine have a Jewish problem?

To read the complete article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Mordechai Schiller

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:01 AM | Comments (2)

October 17, 2007

Morgan Stanley Dumps NY Times Stock

The New York Times is an arch liberal newspaper that operates on a 19th century business model. It provides wall to wall leftist opinions dressed up as news.

This is a recipe for disaster in today's world.

The blogosphere does a far better job at reporting news than daily newspapers.

And in a world in which radical Islam is a clear and present danger to western civilization, the editorial slant of the New York Times is simply not rooted to reality.

One of the most wretched writers on staff, Israeli correspondent Steven Erlanger, is a disgrace to the profession. His dispatches are nothing more than propaganda for Hamas. That the editors of the New York Times allow a jihad apologist to continue in such an important post is symptomatic of an organization that has not the least notion of what constitutes decent journalism.

Pinch Sulzberger and his family rule over the New York Times like medieval lords. And like medieval lords they are doomed by the march of free enterprise and free thought.

Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years.

Click here to go to Seraphic Friend Dirty Harry's Place.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:25 PM | Comments (12)

October 09, 2007

El Steven Erlanger: Official Hamas Correspondent

It is no secret that Steven Erlanger occasionally writes for the New York Times, but his main occupation is propaganda minister for Hamas and Fatah. His bias against Israel and his support of Islamo terrorism is so flagrant that that Erlanger now qualifies as the leading jihadist enabling author in the west—outside of Al Jazeera.

We've been wondering when Erlanger's virulent anti-Zionism would reveal itself as the Jew-hatred that always motivates such creatures.

Not a long wait.

Erlanger wrote an article about shmitta that, big surprise, manages not only to get several facts wrong, but whose attitude to Judaism is incredibly disrespectful and crude.

Can you imagine Erlanger, or any Western journalist writing an equivalent article about some ritual in Islam?

No, you cannot.

It would never happen.

Because Muslims have chilled free journalism. Authors know they cannot write anything but a paen to Islam—or they will have their heads cut off.

But journalists do feel free to ridicule Judaism and Christianity. In fact, for a man like Erlanger, mocking Judaism is good for business. It increases his status in Gaza, makes him a more sympathetic journalist for his Arab sources, and let's face it, that's the name of the game. Erlanger spits on Israel even as he lives in the state, benefits hugely from all its freedoms, but he avoids the intimidation and brutal censorship of Hamas and Fatah, by working as their propaganda machine.

In a flush of white-hot anger, Karen wrote a Letter to the Editor of the New York Times regarding Erlanger's poisonous article.

They won't publish it, they never publish Karen's letters; they are far too literate and devastating—and so we publish the truth The New York Times dares not print.

In Steven Erlanger's biased quest to find evidence for shylocks behind every mezuzah, he has committed an error in his explanation of the loophole used by observant Jews before the holiday of Passover. These are not ways of "fooling the old man" but humanistic ways of upholding the law within the framework of "halacha" that has sustained our people for thousands of years.

The person who cannot afford to toss all his unleavened goods before Passover, contractually "sells" them to a non-Jew for the duration of the holiday. After the holiday, these goods are "bought" back. The rabbi of the community, not a shyster lawyer, as Mr. Erlanger implies, handles the transaction. The rabbi usually receives a small gratuity, for one of the multitude of services he performs for his congregation.

Mr. Erlanger would never treat any other religion with the haughtiness and lack of respect he shows towards Judaism. He would never ask an Orthodox Jew how they felt about Ramadan, as he asked the Muslim shopkeeper. Moreover, if there was a schism among the Moslems, they would not be having a civilized debate as the rabbis do, they would slit each other's throats.

Karen Avrech, Ph.D.
Los Angeles

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:25 PM | Comments (15)

September 10, 2007

Rewriting the Holocaust at The New York Times

Recently, The New York Times Published this story by Isabel Kirshner:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/world/middleeast/06stalags.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Karen wrote a letter to the Editor. They will never publish it, so we do.

Isabel Kershner’s “revelation” (9/6/07) of the existence of "Holocaust Pornography" was misleading and itself, pornographic in its disregard for the atrocities that befell millions of Jews during the Nazi reign. To naive readers who are unfamiliar with the facts on the ground, your reporter hinted that there is speculation as to whether the most humiliating acts of the SS described by the witnesses at the Eichmann trial ever occurred, and that most Israelis perceive the horrors of the Nazi regime as "sadism and pornography."

I never heard of this perverted slant of memory and have been immersed in Holocaust history since my youth and as an adult, learned every detail of the Shoah as a docent at the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, and an interviewer for the Shoah Foundation.

The perversion that passes as "revisionist history" is rife throughout your newspaper in its depiction of the creation of the State of Israel. Now you have committed a greater crime of using this post modern relativism to blacken and contort the oral histories of survivors who recounted the abominations they experienced by the Nazis.

Your correction of the statement made by a Yad Vashem researcher did not clarify whether Block 24 simply existed, or whether the atrocities described there actually took place. There were in fact, brothels, where Jewish women were forced to service SS men. This is not an invention of the pornographic pocket books. Mengele’s documented experiments were worse than anything these pornographers could ever imagine.

My hands are usually blackened after I finish reading the Times, now I feel that they are stained red by the blood of my long lost relatives who died in the Shoah. Their blood calls out from the pages of your newspaper, asking for correction, clarification, and justice. Those illustrations were as incendiary as the depictions of "Allah" that were considered too provocative to publish in your newspaper.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:26 AM | Comments (2)

September 05, 2007

Free the Footage & The Other War

This from Breath of the Beast:

On September 30, 2000, Charles Enderlin alleged that Israeli soldiers intentionally targeted and killed a Palestinian boy at Netzarim Junction. Enderlin, Middle East Correspondent for France2 television, used the footage and testimony of cameraman, Talal abu Rahmah as “proof” of what he claimed to be Israeli savagery.

That allegation spread all but instantaneously around the world, sparking explosions of hatred and violence against Israel and Jews. It has been alluded to by Jihadis the world over, from Palestinian suicide bombers to Osama Bin Laden to the executioners of Daniel Pearl, to assorted radical Islamists in Europe.

Professor Richard Landes and others have succeeded in casting serious doubts about the reliability of the France2 report, including exposing compelling evidence that what is claimed to be the child's death in the sequence is mere playacting. There is also evidence of the habitual and unashamed dishonesty of the photographer Talal abu Rahmah .

France2 immediately has released only the 3 minutes of their cameraman's rushes they thought “relevant”, they have consistently refused to release the full "rushes" (all the footage shot by their cameramen) for inspection. They have blocked efforts in the courts to gain their release, and have allowed only screened viewers to see the tapes at their offices. Even some of those hand-picked viewers who have seen these "rushes" think that major sections of their “action sequences” are staged, and that a close look reveals unprofessional journalistic standards both for the cameraman and for the news broadcaster who used his work.

Charles Enderlin’s defense for running the story – "it corresponded to the situation in Gaza and the West Bank" – recapitulates the “False but accurate” attitude of many towards the Dan Rather forgery- a weak rationalization of disingenuous journalistic bias.

Keeping the full rushes of an event like this one secret can serve no conceivable purpose, other than to protect a guilty media outlet from being exposed in the act of fraud and libel. The honor and safety of the Israelis and everyone who wish for their fair treatment are endangered thereby. They and their embattled homeland are deprived of the chance to vindicate themselves without the evidence that France2 is withholding.

The petition is available here. Please sign. And then forward to as many people as you can.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Nancy Coppock, The Jackalope's Voice

Seraphic Secret also wants our readers to be aware of Stephanie Gutmann's seminal book, The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media Supremacy. Ms. Gutmann explains why Israel has floundered in the all important propaganda war against her Arab enemies. I will be writing about this all important book more thoroughly very soon.

For the moment, I want to point out that Chapter Two, "Dura—A Case Study," analyzes this entire affair in excruciating detail. Enderlin emerges not only as highly unprincipled, but as a classic Jew-hater. His rant against German Jewish film director Esther Schapira sounds like something out of Vichy France. As for the Palestinian cameraman Talal abu Rahmah, well, half of what Rahmah says isn't true and the other half is just lies. Even Enderlin tries desperately to keep Rahmah away from interviews with the Western press.

After reading the mighty Ms. Gutman's chapter one can only conclude that the unfortunate child was murdered (if it's not a Pallywood hoax) by his own Arab bretheren—what a shock, huh? And the atrocity shamelessly exploited by the Arabs to stoke Jew hatred all over the world.

Guess what? It worked. Spectacularly well.

This is a great and important book, meticulously researched, beautifully written, and I urge all my readers to order this book immediately. It's a shocking expose of mainstream journalists—most verge on criminality in their bias against Israel/Jews—and a stunning portrait of Israel's ineptitude in dealing with a hostile world media.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:07 PM | Comments (3)

August 27, 2007

The Protocols of Christiane Amanpour

I'm pretty sure that I'm suffering Post Traumatic Syndrome from watching the entire six hours of Christiane Amanpour's G-d's Warriors, and then blogging about the propaganda piece.

Here's my coverage:
Watching Al Jazeera, Part I
Watching Al Jazeera, Part II
Watching Al Jazeera, Part III

Honestly, calling this, um—thing—journalism would be like calling Julius Streicher a nuanced editor. The work of a fanatic leftist secularist, this CNN special is drenched in moral relativism. Amanpour's distortions of the existential battle being waged by the Arab/Muslim world against Israel and Judaism is appalling. Her propaganda delivers a universe of ammunition to murderous jihadists and venemous Jew-haters everywhere. Amanpour has in the past displayed a keen hostility to the State of Israel, but in this six hour special her distortions and lies are in full bloom—and quite frankly they verge on Jew-hatred.

At one point Amanpour flatly states that Orthodox Jewish women are subservient to their husbands.

Karen and Looked at each other and just burst into laughter.

How many times have I called up an Orthodox friend and had this conversation:

Me: Hey, wanna shoot some hoops?
Friend: Let me ask my wife.

A minute later he returns:

Friend: Sorry, Rachel wants me to fold laundry.
Me: Are you a man or a mouse?
Friend: Let me ask Rachel.

Anywhoo.

Karen and I laughed at Amanpour's truly stupid statement, but this kind of lie/distortion/canard/whatever is no laughing matter. It libels an entire religion.

Is Amanpour ignorant or a liar?

If she's ignorant, she should be fired. Not for this singular untruth, but for the entire enterprise which leaks lies and distortions at every frame.

If she's a liar, well, she should be fired for consciously producing jihadist-enabling propaganda, consciously propagating Jew-hatred.

Phyllis Chesler has a fine round-up on the Protocols of Christiane Amanpour.

The point-by-point refutation by CAMERA is superb.

As Amanpour destroys language and meaning through a Stalinist style manipulation of words, images and history, we at Seraphic Secret attempt to maintain integrity by scaling the heights of language, seeking out obscure words we will most certainly never use in conversation or in the workplace, but words which, we sincerely hope, keep our minds sharp and make us ever more sensitive to the uses and abuses of language.

So: you know the drill, pick up your #2 pencil, open your notebook and compose an eloquent and coherent sentence using the following three words:

iatronudia
n. a woman's pretending to be ill in order to disrobe in front of a doctor

swedge
v. to leave without paying one's bill

unnun
v. to strip a nun of her position or character

Extra credit if the sentence refers to: The Protocols of Christiane Amanpour.

Hat Tip: Futility Closet

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:40 PM | Comments (19)

August 24, 2007

Watching Al Jazeera, Part III

SCENE ONE:

I'm staring at a bottle of Vodka. I really, really get. it The whole get loaded, get ripped, get drunk and just let world drift by thing. I'm figuring that's the only way I can get through Part III of G-d's Warriors: Christianity.

But there's a little problem.

I don't drink.

Ever.

I get migraines. I even get migraines when I get a whiff of strong perfume.

I'm such a wuss.

Oh, well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

SCENE TWO:

So, I trudge upstairs to our master bedroom, and say, actually plead with Karen: “You gonna watch with me?”

Karen pins me with a look: “Robert, don't watch if it upsets you so much.”

My wife, in case you haven't noticed, is the reasonable sidekick in this buddy movie in which we're featured.

“But I gotta watch, I have to blog about it. I have a responsibility to my readers.”

Karen sighs. I've got her. The word responsibility is like a bullet to her heart. She can no more resist responsibility than I can resist a Kurosawa movie.

SCENE THREE:

Al Jazeera lady, AKA Christiane Amanpour, has undergone a metamorphosis. She's now Godless Secular Warrior Lady — but still looks like a well-developed fullback and might be a great addition to the Jets line-up.

Tonight she's going after Christians. The only thing missing is The Coliseum, howling Romans, hungry lions, you get the picture.

Reverend Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg Virginia is Godless Secular Warrior Lady's first stop. Quick shots of — prepare yourselves for some shocking images: separate male and female dormitories.

Karen goes: “Can you believe it?”
I add: “The horror, the horror.”

Godless Secular Warrior Lady darkly intones: "Separate male, female dormitories. Separate washrooms and showers for men and women.”

I'm this close to banging my head against the wall. Are co-ed dorms and bathrooms this woman's yardstick for normal? Listen, the only place in the world where men and women share bathrooms and showers is on the set of a hard-core porn film. Plus Harvard and Yale.

And she's calling these Christians, what, fundamentalists, warriors?

Godless Secular Warrior Lady is so steeped in her Orwellian state of mind that she doesn't recognize that she's a secular humanist fanatic.

Helloooo! There is a difference between a fanatic and a fundamentalist.

The students at Liberty University are pious Christians, clean cut kids who do not drink, take drugs, watch porn, indulge in premarital sex.

“Hey, let's send Offspring #3 there,” I suggest.
Karen sighs tolerantly but with affection — I so hope.

Godless Secular Warrior Lady tours the Liberty University Law School. They've got a room set up that's an exact replica of the Supreme Court. The plan is to train a generation of Christian lawyers to restore religious values into the American sphere. Obviously, abortion is an issue high on the list. Godless Secular Warrior Lady is not happy. She's gone from being mildly amused by these whacky Christians to being kind, y'know, threatened. The alarmist tone of her voice has risen about five decibel points.

It's perfectly okay for liberals to legislate their beliefs into law, but for the religious, well, suddenly it becomes sinister, she even uses the word "stealth" at some point.

Big music sting, natch. You can do whatever you want in post-production. You can make Heidi look like Ilse: She Wolf of the S.S.

SCENE FOUR:

Hit the Pause button. I DVR'd the show. Karen brews tea.

I check my e-mail. Here's a friendly note from, I think, Saudi Arabia. It's so nice to have far-flung pen-pals. It's, y'know, multi-cultural.

You are a bigot, an antiMuslim anti Arab Zionist dog. You're (sic) blog about the CNN speciale (sic) proves that Jews like you are the probleme (sic) and the show exposed the Zionists for the true terrrorists (sic) against the peaseful (sic) Palistiinians (sic) people. You will burn in hell you and all the Zionist dogs.

Hmm, maybe I should forward this elegant missive to Christiane Amanpour AKA Al Jazeera Lady, AKA Godless Secular Warrior Lady.

Nah, she'll probably just frame and proudly hang it in her office.

SCENE FIVE:

The American and Israeli Flags are waving. Hebrew folk songs are blasting from speakers. Thousands upon thousands of Christians are celebrating their support of Israel. Pastor John Hagee has this wonderful theatrical quaver in his voice — he's a great speaker — and I'm thinking: most Conservative and Reform synagogues in America don't support Israel with such fervor. I mean, Pastor Hagee is a fierce Zionist. He supports the settlements in Judea and Samaria all the way. Walk into the typical Conservative and Reform synagogue and it's like:

"We have to compromise, we have to trade land for peace, yadda, yadda."

The same old appeasement policies that lead to dead Jews, intellectually corrupt policies that have turned Gaza into a forward base for Hizbullah, Al Qaeda, and of course Hamas.

On the grounds of his Texas Church, Pastor Hagee has built a replica of The Kotel, The Western Wall. Godless Secular Warrior Lady gives herself away and calls it, The Wailing Wall. Nobody calls it that anymore. I mean nobody. Well, actually the Jew-hating Arabs do. We don't wail, lady. We daven, pray, we sing, we dance, and we often stand there with guns slung over our shoulders to fight off the Arabs who would kill us where we stand.

It's little slips of the tongue that say so much.

Karen says: “We've got to go there.”
I happen to love Texas, and we have cousins who just moved there, so why the heck not? I really need a vacation.

Pastor Hagee, we're a-comin'.

SCENE SIX:

Oh no, Jimmy Carter again. She just keeps pulling this Jew-hater out. But now I realize that this disgraceful ex-President doesn't just hate Jews, he hates Christians too.

Unless he's the Christian in charge.

Godless Secular Warrior Lady has given herself away by holding up Jimmy Carter as the Christian par-excellence. He comes across as a self-righteous prig — he always has, and his track-record as a one-term President is, to say the least, disastrous.

SCENE SEVEN:

Abortion. Well, it had to come up. It's the hot-button issue. Roe v. Wade. Naturally, Godless Secular Warrior Lady features old footage of abortion clinics that have been bombed, body bags of physicians who have been murdered.

Bad stuff. Wrong. And just plain evil.

But here's the thing, these crimes are not the norm, and all good Christians and Jews condemn this violence.

The Christians interviewed calmly and intelligently explain that they will work through the system to overthrow Roe v. Wade. They, oddly enough, find it unacceptable that a million lives are snuffed out in the womb every year in America.

Godless Secular Warrior Lady, I assume, thinks it's cool.

There's a telling moment when a lovely grassroots Republican activist explains: “I used to be pro-choice, and then I got pregnant and I realized, there's a baby inside me, and I changed, I realized it was wrong.”

SCENE EIGHT:

My Powerbook beeps. a buddy IM's me.

Buddy: Did u watch?
Me: DVR'd, watching now.
Buddy: The abortion stuff, really tears me up.
Me: I know.
Buddy: Crying.
Me: Offering kleenex.
Buddy: Thanx.

My buddy signs off.

My buddy was adopted. My buddy has always been grateful that his parents adopted him, that his unmarried mother chose not abort him, took him to term and put him up for adoption. My buddy cannot understand why more women don't choose this option. For every child in America who is put up for adoption, regardless of race, color or disability, there is a family who desperately wants to adopt that baby.

I am sad.

SCENE NINE:

Confession: I'm running out of energy. Godless Secular Warrior Lady has this oh-so-superior smirk on her face as she interviews Christian after Christian and the only time it comes off is when she's talking with hard-core leftie Pastor Greg Boyd, or, sigh, the wretched Karen Armstrong, yup, we get to hear from her again. I wish she'd get herself to a nunnery.

SCENE TEN:

Ron Luce runs Battle Cry, a Christian organization which affords teenagers the opportunity to reclaim the radical culture. Guess where he chooses to go on a mission with his flock?

Planet San Francisco.

Oy-vey.

With that practiced smirk, Godless Secular Warrior Lady (I'm so tired of typing those four words) listens as Luce explains the dress code and rules for the kids who voluntarily enroll in his organization — which actually sound very Yeshivish: modest clothing for the women so as not to distract the men, no liquor, drugs, internet porn, and no premarital sex.

GSWL—there, I've shortened it—screws up her face and cries: “Ron, that's just like The Taliban!”

Memo to GSWL: The Taliban were a Muslim Sunni terrorist gang who, among other atrocities:

1. Ordered all women in Afghanistan to wear the Burqua.
2. Made it illegal for women to work.
3. Made it illegal for women to receive any education.
4. Made it illegal for women to leave home unless accompanied by a male.
5. Regularly stoned women to death on the suspicion of adultery.
6. Made kite-flying a crime.
7. Dynamited the 1,700 year old Buddhist Bamiya statues out of existence

I have a question for CNN. Are you really paying this ignoramus, this bigot, as your Chief International Correspondent? Because if you are I'd like to apply for the job. I know ten times more about, well, everything than she does.

Including fashion.

I gotta say this: those pointy white boots GSWL is wearing in every shot are so I'm-part-of-Tony Soprano's-crew, and the obligatory hey-I'm- a-foreign-correspondent safari suit? it ruthlessly bulges where it absolutely shouldn't—lady, pick yourself up and head on over to What Not to Wear. You are an official mess.

SCENE ELEVEN:

Home schooling. I dunno. Does GSWL find this sinister, wrong? By this time, I'm so punch drunk from the moral confusion projected by the three nights and six hours I've put into this dreck I feel like checking myself into The Magic Mountain.

The family are pious, middle class, Dad works as a landscaper. Mom takes care of the five kids and both parents home school the kids. The course of study: math, geography, reading, writing and oh yeah, Latin. Not too shabby. The parents don't want to send their kids to public schools because they want to protect them from dopey secular ideas.

The same reason Karen and I send our children to Yeshiva.

And as one very wise pastor pointed out earlier: “The schools in America are not public, they are secular.”

GSWL had no comeback.

One of the home schooled children is interviewed by GSWL. She wants to know what the child wants out of life. The little boy, maybe 7 years old, is eloquent beyond his tender years: I want to be a treasure for my Lord.

FADE TO BLACK

Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbat.

Important Links covering the Amanpour series:

Camera, Mystical Paths, Debbie Schlussel, Atlas Shrugs, Dhimmi Watch, Boker tov, Boulder, Sharon Cobb, The Atheist Jew, Cheat-Seeking Missiles, Yid with Lid, Phyllis Chesler, My Right Word and Elder of Ziyon.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:09 AM | Comments (54)

August 23, 2007

Watching Al Jazeera, Part II

I'm actually hopeful for the first few minutes as Al Jazeera lady summarizes the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and one of it's founders Sayyid Qutb, his pathological hatred for America, his eventual imprisonment and execution in Egypt by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

But I'm beginning to notice something weird about this segment, Al Jazerra Lady is not saying G-d's Muslim Warriors a heck of a lot. Remember last night, G-d's Jewish Warriors was intoned so many times I was like getting dizzy, and math disability aside, I just lost count of how many times Al Jazeera Lady intoned those three words.

But here, where you'd kind of expect the mantra — there's a vast and gaping silence. There's no sinister slow-mo, no Exorcist-style musical stings, none of the oh-so-clever post-production tricks that were used so effectively last night to libel a specific segment of the Jewish people: Jews who wish to live in Judea and Samaria.

Imagine that.

To call this episode chaotic would be kind.

And kind is the operative word.

There's this priceless segment where Al Jazeera lady drops in on the offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo.

“Oh, it's so small,” she cries.
“Yes, but from here we will control the world,” says the Cairo leader of the Brotherhood.

Al Jazerra lady giggles girlishly — for a fullback; she thinks the old terrorist is sooooo adorable. Meanwhile, he's playing her like a harp, assuring her that the Brotherhood, whose mission is to bring Sharia everywhere, will do it democratically.

Al Jazeera lady nods, uh-huh. Sounds reasonable.

Karen goes: “Is she really so dense?”

Al Jazeera lady interview some "Middle East expert," an academic I've seen a few times, I call him: But Man. The first time I saw him was after 9-11. He said something like: This is horrible, BUT the Muslim world does have legitimate grievances.

In other words, he's an apologist for jihad.

So, naturally But Man assures Jihad lady that the Muslim Brotherhood are non-violent and part of the political process.

Yeah, like Hamas and Hizbullah.

There's an endless segment featuring a young Muslim woman in Florida who covers her hair with the hijab; endless shots of cooking, shopping, trading adoring looks with her husband, and, naturally the obligatory lecture about how jihad is really an inner struggle.

Uh-huh.

Jihad lady fawns over Muslim girl and her husband and never, ever calls them G-d's Muslim warriors.

Imagine that.

Al Jazzera lady hops on over to her hometown: Tehran. She informs us that the 1979 take-over of the American Embassy, the hostage crisis was a "first in diplomacy."

Al Jazeera lady has some really strange ideas about diplomacy.

Things get really strange in Persia. Big shock, huh?

Al Jazeera lady gets all soft and sentimental as she narrates the eight year Iran-Iraq War. Her voice kind of swells when she tells of the Persian Shia children sent by their loving parents and the kindly Ayatollah as minesweepers.

Children.

Minesweepers.

Hundreds of thousands children sacrificed. But, mind you, the Shah was really the bad guy. I guess The Shah didn't kill enough children. Didn't label the people he killed martyrs.

Martyr lady doesn't find this kind of, oh, I dunno, barbaric, cruel; she doesn't even bring up, gasp, international law. Which she whipped out on Israel last night faster than Annie Oakley.

Apparently, martyrdom is, um, cool.

Martyr lady watches Shia beat themselves raw with steel chains. She watches a bloody passion play. She listens to mothers describe their pride in the martyrdom of giving up several son as minesweepers.

I keep wondering how sane people describe Islam as the religion of peace. All I see is lots and lots of blood. And the love of violent death.

But, hey, that's just me.

She hops on over to "The Hold Land." G-d forbid she should say Israel. I'm waiting for a journalistic expose of Hamas, Fatah, Hizbullah. Their illegal fund-raising activities in America. She can't avoid it.

I'm such a moron.

Al Jazeera lady focuses on a homicide shooter. And he did it, according to his proud family, because a little Arab girl—accidentally shot my the mean Israelis—died in his arms.

Yeah, you see before he turned all terrorist and nasty, he wanted to be, get this, an artist.

Papa holds up a sample of his "art."

I kid you not, the art is rudimentary stick figures drawn by a four year old — maybe. Terrorist boy was an artist like I'm a theoretical mathematician.

The point of the segment: the terrorist act was really Israel's fault.

Which is a lot like cutting off a man's leg and then blaming him for limping.

By this time in the show, my head is pounding. I need some medication.

Probably Demerol.

Does Al Jazeera lady refer to this Arab killer of Jews as G-d Muslim Warrior?

No she does not.

Oh man, Karen Armstrong again. The whacky and bitter ex-nun going on about how user-friendly Islam is for women. You see, Islam does not treat women like "meat."

Intercut: stunning models in a fashion show.

I am soooo happy. The women are gorgeous. Great clothing. Great hair. Stiletto heels with stiletto attitudes to match. And after being forced to look at dour—and really, I gotta say it—angry, glowering and just plain unpleasant Muslim women dressed in potato sacks for close to two hours, thank G-d for fashionable, elegant and proudly lovely western women.

I'm waiting for Al Jazeera lady, who's supposed to be like this major feminist, to do a hard-hitting segment on honor killings. An everyday thing in the Arab/Muslim world.

Jihad apologist Karen Armstrong has just provided the perfect opening with her Orwellian nonsense about Islam being so user-friendly for women. But guess what?

Nothing. Nada. Zero. Black hole for honor killings.

You know what country does not tolerate honor killings in the Middle East?

Israel.

Now that's what I call Islamaphobia.

Regarding Armstrong, a Seraphic Friend, an author with a keen knowledge of both the history of religion and current events put it this way: “She’s an ex-nun. Was married to Christ. She needs another fantasy lover. Muhammed is much more macho. And since he’s a fantasy, can do no wrong. So macho Muhammed has replaced Jesus as her fantasy husband.”

Brilliant.

By this time, my head is exploding. I actually think my eyeballs are bleeding.

The end of the show is priceless. Christiane Amanpour solemnly intones: “I hope that we have provided a bridge to Islam.”

Oh, and I thought this was supposed to be about G-d's Muslim Warriors.

Silly me.

Karen says: “What do you want to watch?”
“I need something special, something really elevating.”

Karen flips channels.

“Stop!” I cry.

We watch for a few minutes. Oh man, I cannot believe that Audrina is attracted to that liceball on the motorcycle. He's such a loser. He actually burped in Lauren's face. The beast. I'd like to take him out with a .50 caliber round from a Barrett sniper rifle. He makes me that angry. And Heidi, is she actually going to marry that doofus Spencer? How dare he paint that awful graffiti as soon as her back is turned. Don't do it Heidi, baby. I can find a better shidduch for you. Really I'm so worried about the girls in The Hills.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:03 AM | Comments (44)

August 22, 2007

Watching Al Jazeera, Part I

So Karen and I sit down, flip channels, and what do you know, suddenly Al Jazeera pops up.

“Since when do we get Al Jazeera?” I ask.
“We don't,” Karen assures me.

Oh man, gotta call the cable company and make sure we're not paying for this Jew-hatred.

There's all this slow mo footage overlaid with sinister musical stings of grim looking Jooz carrying M16's; this is intercut with Bedouin children herding sheep, looking all innocent and peaceful.

And the narrator/host/entertainer, a woman with shoulders like a fullback, and an absolutely tragic mullet style hair-do from the 80's, keeps talking about "G-d's Jewish warriors," and she repeats these three words—I'm counting, mind you—and by the time she hits number 57, I give up.

I now know what it's like to get brainwashed in some North Korean reeducation gulag.

Anyway, this Al Jazeera lady with the hoo-ha Oxford accent—big shock—states:

”The second intifada was an attempt by the Palestinians to shake off the Israeli occupation.”

Really?

Well, what else can you expect from Al Jazeera.

Actually, the second intifada was Arafat's answer to the Camp David Accords. His way of saying no to all negotiations after Barak offered the terrorist leader 96% of everything, including dividing Jerusalem.

The whole two hours of this Al Jazeera program is such typical, and poisonous Arab propaganda that Karen and I are kind of fascinated. This huge lady with the really bad hair interviews guess who as experts on Israel?

Jimmy Carter. Karen Armstrong. John Mearsheimer. There's the obligatory angry loser from Peace Now — dude, clean your office, it looks like cat litter. And a couple of Israeli lefties who are so far gone they might as well be living in Damascus.

Gee-willikers, Al Jazeera lady forgot to interview Hizbullah/Iranian-proxy strongman Hassan Nasrallah; his views on Israel are pretty much the same as the usual suspects above. He's always ranting about the evils of the Israeli occupation. And he vehemently denies that he's a Jew-hater. Like Carter, Armstrong and Mearsheimer he insists that he's merely anti-Zionist.Yup, Nasrallah gets positively indignant when he's accused of being an anti-Semite. Sheesh, can't anyone criticize and bomb Israel without being accused of being a Jew-hater?

There's this long segment on the — horror musical sting here — Israel lobby. Obligatory shots of well-dressed, um Jews, tables of food, which I suppose is proof of evil, people chatting and looking, y'know, conspiratorial.

I'm waiting for Al Jazeera lady to start quoting The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, because that's really what this segment is all about, but I suppose she's too cool for that. This is after all Al Jazeera. They are , allegedly, civilized.

Then fullback lady pulls out the big guns: Actual Jewish terrorists. She comes up with Baruch Goldstein, Yigal Amir, and a group who rigged explosives to the car of an Arab Mayor they suspected of aiding terrorists and who planned on blowing up an Arab girl's school, Disgusting and wrong, but they were caught and arrested, by Jewish cops, thank G-d.

That's it for Jewish terror.

Personally, I think the Jewish people have shown remarkable restraint in the face of a genocidal enemy.

Al Jazeera lady gets all indignant about American Christians who support Israel. They're warriors because... I have no idea; they sing and dance and pray.

I always thought that warriors are people who, y'know, pick up weapons and fight.

Let's face it, Al Jazeera lady is playing the old Soviet game of manipulating and ultimately destroying language: slavery is freedom, the bottom is the top, evil is good.

Karen and I are smiling. Wow, these good Christians show more love of Israel than many Jews. G-d bless them. Al Jazeera just did a big favor, probably increased membership in that Florida Church by 20%.

Then there's segment called: "The Power Couple."

“Hey isn't that your cousin Shani?” I say to Karen.
“Yup, sure is.”

Al Jazeera lady grimly reports on Assemblyman Dov Hikind and his wife Shani, who raise money for a united Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera lady darkly spits out: “All. Completely. Legal.”

Horrifying.

Al Jazeera lady points out that some of these Jewish warriors are wearing, prepare yourselves: diamonds.

I'm in a state of shock, feel like melting into a puddle.

The chutzpah of Jewish women wearing diamonds.

Every Al Jazeera viewer knows that women should be wearing, y'know, burkahs!

Al Jazeera lady pines for the past when Jews were forbidden to live in Jerusalem; when the Western Wall was the city garbage dump; when synagogues were horse stables; when headstones from Jewish cemeteries were used by the Jordanians to pave streets; when Jordanian soldiers sat on the walls of the Old City, shot and murdered Jews.

Ah, the good ol' days.

Basically, the whole two hours is a hit piece on Jews who wish to live in Judea and Samaria. Al Jazeera lady blames, well, everything on the Jooz. She never points out that after the Jewish surrender of Gaza, Hamas proclaimed victory and promised that "all of Israel would be liberated."

I guess that's sort of an inconvenient truth.

Here's a larger truth: what happens when Arab/Muslims proclaim parts of London, Paris, Brooklyn, under Sharia and the presence of Jews an intolerable provocation?

There are already 22 Arab countries that are Judenrein.

Why does the world find this perfectly acceptable, perfectly natural?

Why does the world keep drawing new lines in the sand where the presence of Jews is unacceptable?

Just asking.

“Hey,” says Karen, “this isn't Al Jazeera, this is CNN.”

“Well, I know that, I've just been using this as a literary device to make a point.”

Christiane Amanpour's work is guilty of moral equivalence. She's a disgraceful journalist. And I guarantee this: tonight 's segment will be an apology for Muslim jihadists.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:41 AM | Comments (35)

August 16, 2007

Arab Propaganda + Mainstream Media = Slander American Troops

How ignorant are the editors and journalists in the mainstream media?

How gullible?

How anxious are they to believe the poison from Arab propagandists?

There are no words.

Cruise on over to Solomon, and have a look.

This is what happens when people who know nothing — I mean nothing about firearms — work in the dinosaur media.

You don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:55 PM | Comments (2)

August 03, 2007

The Protocols of Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman's recent attack on Modern Orthodox Judaism was built on a platform of half-truths, and cherry-picked scholarship designed to place halacha, Jewish law, in the worst light possible. As we pointed out, the motivation for the article was a personal bitter experience.

But as it turns out, Noah Feldman was lying about this experience. Not only did he lie, but the New York Times knew that he was lying — and went with the story anyway.

We observed that in writing this unfair attack in Torah Judaism Feldman was acting as judge, jury and executioner; some said we were too harsh, that our remarks were unwarranted ad-hominem attacks. We also accused the New York Times of Jew-hatred for they refused to run the Muhammed cartoons "out of respect for Islam" yet they ran Feldman's outrageous attack against Orthodox Judaism with no counter argument to balance out Feldman's venemous and untruthful screed.

It seems that our remarks were not only precise — but far too generous.

Noah Feldman and his non-Jewish girlfriend were not cropped out of his class photo as he self-righteously claimed in The New York Times Magazine. Feldman knew it before the article went for publication, and so did the editors of the New York Times.

The journalistic breach of ethics is monumental. The slander against Maimonides Academy is infamous. And Feldman's libel against Judaism will, no doubt, be an invaluable resource for future protocols of anti-Jewish propaganda, especially in the Arab/Muslim world.

When confronted with his lie and asked why he didn't rewrite his story before publication Noah Feldman's response/explanation/excuse/justification is a classic of academic deconstruction:

“When I first wrote it I was doing it from memory. When [the photographer] turned up the contact sheet there was no contradiction at all, as far as I could tell. They had several photos to choose from and they chose one that I wasn’t in. There’s no question that one could offer other explanations for what happened,” other than that it was intentional. “It’s not as if [the photo] was an outlying event. It fit right in with the other things [refusing to print his lifecycle notices]. This was a memoir of my experience.”

Got that?

Of course not. It's the nonsense that passes for intellectual discourse in the halls of academia.

Let me add subtitles to Feldman's gibberish: “There is no objective truth. Truth is a subjective experience, thus my memories are as valid as any other memory of the event.”

The road to moral relativism made crystal clear.

There will be no apology from Noah Feldman or The New York Times. Remember: being on the left means never having to say you're sorry.

Noah Feldman, who ignited a firestorm of criticism last week with his pointed attack on Modern Orthodoxy in The New York Times Magazine, admitted this week that he learned before publication of his article that he in fact was not intentionally cropped out of his reunion photograph.

In the article, “Orthodox Paradox,” Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor, asserts that he was erased from a newsletter’s photograph by his former yeshiva, the Maimonides School in Brookline, Mass., because he was standing alongside his non-Jewish girlfriend. The reunion anecdote led off the story in a dramatic way and the image of Feldman and his wife allegedly being stricken from the photo appeared central to his feelings of being left out.

The photographer, Lenny Eisenberg, told The Jewish Week Monday that he had difficulty capturing as many as 60 reunion participants within a single frame. Eisenberg ended up taking several shots from one side, then the other, and several people on the far side — not just Feldman and his fiancée — happened to be out of the picture when it finally appeared in the newsletter.

To read the entire article, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Kishke

Karen and I wish all our Seraphic Friends a lovely and meaningful Shabbos.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 01:06 AM | Comments (7)

July 30, 2007

Terrorati: Whoops

Karen says: “The most interesting items in the New York Times are the corrections, or as they are called: For the Record.”

Here's a doozy Karen brought to my attention.

On Tuesday July 24, Isabel Kershner wrote an article titled: Blair Takes On New Role as Mideast Envoy, Amid Constraints.

Here is a For The Record that was published on Saturday July 28.

Because of an editing error, an article on Tuesday about Tony Blair's first day as the special envoy of the so-called quartet of Middle East peacemakers referred imprecisely to the population of Palestinian refugees and their descendants, whose fates are a core issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although Palestinians and their descendants who are registered as refugees by the United Nations now number about 4.5 million, only about 700,000 Palestinians — not “millions” — fled or were forced to flee during the era when the state of Israel was created. Also because of an editing error, the article referred incorrectly to the time frame during which the first Palestinians left their homes. Most left before and during the 1948 war, not afterward.

A few observations.

1. When the N.Y. Times refers to an "editing error" this is code for: Isabel Kershner is ignorant of the most basic history of the Arab Israeli conflict. In fact, she might very well conduct her research on Al Jazeera.

2. The article is Googled, cited and quoted, and the wretched Arab propaganda spreads like a virus.

3. Isabel Kershner never apologizes; she continues on her beat, her bias/ignorance/laziness unchecked.

4. Thus The Terrorati aid and abet the jihadists — and inevitably even more innocent men, women and children are murdered.

Update: Soccer Dad brings my attention to Martin Peretz's article regarding this very same correction. Peretz disagrees with my analysis, feels that Kershner does know Middle East history, and the mistakes were inserted by an anonymous editor, though Peretz does concede that Kershner's leftist credentials are quite solid.

Meanwhile, Soccer Dad, who is something of a national treasure for 1) The Blogosphere 2) The Jewish people 3) America 4) Western Civilization — and not necessarily in that order — points out that the corrections provided by The New York Times on the Kershner article do not exactly build confidence.

The New York Times, as do all big arch liberal media outlets, is forever demanding transparency from the government, the military, the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, while at the same time, practicing some of the most sinister forms of corporate obscurantism. It is impossible for us to know who exactly is responsible for what in the Kershner article, but it is her byline and in the end it is she who is responsible for her good name.

By the way, what is the difference between: Corrections and For the Record? And wouldn't it be interesting to know what corrections the New York Times does not make.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:21 AM | Comments (8)

May 15, 2007

Al Jazeera on Saddam's Payroll

Steve Gilbert of Sweetness & Light reports: ...[a] recently surfaced letter dated September 24, 2002 refers to a decision by the Iraqi Council of Ministers under Saddam authorizing the Ministry of Culture and Information to make a monthly payment of €50,000 to Al-Jazeera TV.

BTW, €50,000 is $67,700 at the current rate of exchange.

So Al-Jazeera sold itself pretty cheap.

How much was he giving others? We know CNN acted as his press agency for the right to have a bureau there. We know now he paid Al-Jazeera. It's the pressies we don't yet know about that concerns me most. Oh, I am sure there are others. Aren't you?

Hat Tip: American Thinker

Shocking, simply shocking!

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:56 AM | Comments (2)

April 26, 2007

The Media: Hizbullah's Best Friend

While the war between Israel and Hizbullah raged in Lebanon and Israel last summer, it became clear that media coverage had itself started to play an important role in determining the ultimate outcome of that war. It seemed clear that news coverage would affect the course of the conflict. And it quickly transpired that Hizbullah would become the beneficiary of the media's manipulation.

A close examination of the media's role during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon comes now from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, in an analysis of the war published in a paper whose subtitle should give pause to journalists covering international conflict: "The Israeli-Hizbullah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Assymetrical Conflict" by Marvin Kalb, of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, methodically traces the transformation of the media "from objective observer to fiery advocate." Kalb painstakingly details how Hizbullah exercised absolute control over how journalists portrayed its side of the conflict, while Israel became "victimized by its own openness."

Click here for the entire story.

And here's the report: The Israeli-Hizbullah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Assymetrical Conflict by Marvin Kalb.

The mainstream media should hang their heads in shame, and then resign in mass. Disgraceful. Outrageous. But entirely predictable.

If these morally obtuse journalists were around during WWII, they would have enabled the Nazis and the Japanese.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:26 PM | Comments (4)

April 19, 2007

The Killer and the Mainstream Media: A Love Story

I have no interest in looking at the images of the human monster who murdered 32 innocent men and women on the campus of Virginia Tech.

His self-absorbed ravings and his whiny excuses are just more proof of a marginal creep who, unable to take responsibility for his miserable life, for his actions, for his embrace of evil, uses every excuse to justify his merciless actions. He invokes class warfare; he blames liquor, trust funds, fancy cars. He compares himself to Jesus and Moses; his prose is overwrought and wretched.

Naturally, we made him do it.

He is, of course, the ultimate, narcissist, wallowing in too much self-esteem. Our sin? We did not recognize his greatness.

NBC has done a great disservice by acting as the killer's PR machine.

Now, every copy cat-killer in the world will know how to spread their message, virus-like, across the globe.

1. Prepare a slick DVD with sensational photos, preferably with lots of shots of guns and knives and a rambling, incoherent monologue.

2. Mail to mainstream media. Make sure to use correct zip code.

3. Find a gun-free zone; kill as many innocent people as possible.

4. Kill self. But have no fear, legend will live on thanks to the good folks at the mainstream media.

Here's how Seraphic Secret would hande the killer and his meaningless package.

1. Never say the killer's name.
2. Destroy every photo and recording the killer ever made.
3. For 30 days display photos and memoriams of those who were killed.
4. Grieve for a year. Be angry. Be sad. Don't heal. And do not forgive the killer.

If handled this way, I guarantee you will see an immediate decrease in these horrendous crimes.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 11:17 AM | Comments (23)

April 11, 2007

The Jihadist Enablers at PBS

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank.

"I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds," Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."

To read the rest of this story, please click here.

Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Jeremayakova

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:22 PM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2007

Anna Nicole and the Palestinians

Anna Nicole Smith’s life was a train wreck.

Her entire tragic life in the public eye, was predetermined by the choices she made -- or didn’t make. She was reluctant to give up the spotlight, preferring instead to be a ‘victim,’ albeit one that was a caricature of real victimhood.

You think Seraphic Friends Sigmund, Carl and Alfred are making a joke here. Try saying: Self-induced victimhood. Yes, click here to find out how Anna Nicole and the Palis share the same Dali-esque space.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:32 AM | Comments (1)

January 30, 2007

Duke's Tenured Vigilantes

The scandalous rush to judgment in the lacrosse "rape" case.

Mike Nifong's handling of the case was clearly outrageous. But he would probably not have gone so far, indeed would not have dared to go so far, had he not been egged on by two other groups that rushed just as quickly to judge the three accused young men guilty of gross and racially motivated carnal violence. Despite the repeated attempts by the three to clear themselves, a substantial and vocal percentage--about one-fifth--of the Duke University arts and sciences faculty and nearly all of the mainstream print media in America quickly organized themselves into a hanging party. Throughout the spring of 2006 and indeed well into the late summer, Nifong had the nearly unanimous backing of this country's (and especially Duke's) intellectual elite as he explored his lurid theories of sexual predation and racist stonewalling.

An important and incisive look into how the intellectual elite of this country, tenured leftist professors and the liberal mainstream media, organized themselves into a lynch mob. Notice, if you will, that these are the very same people who protest the Patriot Act, but self-righteously enable crooked lawyers to persecute those who should be presumed innocent. Why? Well, because the "rapists" were priveleged white males, southern (actually the accused are all from the north-east), and wealthy. And the "victim" was poor, black and a "sex worker."

True threats to personal freedom come from the left in America, not from the right.

To read Charlotte Allen's full article in the Weekly Standard, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:20 AM | Comments (2)

December 17, 2006

60 Minutes Response to Iran --Tonight

From: CBS News
Subject: 60 MINUTES "Hitler's Secret Archive"
Sunday, Dec.17

I wanted to give you a heads-up on a story
that will be running this Sunday, Dec. 17 (7PM ET/PT on CBS)
on "60 MINUTES" about a long-secret German archive that
houses a treasure trove of information on 17.5 million
victims of the Holocaust.

The archive, located in the German
town of Bad Arolsen, is massive (there are 16 miles of
shelving containing 50 million pages of documents) and until
recently, was off-limits to the public. But after the German
government agreed earlier this year to open the archives,
CBS News' Scott Pelley traveled there with three Jewish
survivors who were able to see their own Holocaust records.
It's an incredibly moving piece, all the more poigant in the
wake of this week's meeting of Holocaust deniers in Iran.

We're trying to get word out about the story to people who
have a special interest in this subject. So we were hoping
you'd consider sending out something to your listserve
and/or posting something on your website.

Further information will also be available on our website which you're welcome to link to from yours.

Of course, none of this will make a difference to these bigots, these Holocause deniers. Notice, I do not call them "revisionist historians," or "scholars," as does the NY Times. For they are, at core, a pathalogical group who deny reality itself. But it is a relief to see the mainstream media take on these modern day Jew-haters. And make no mistake about it, the Neturei Karta are also Jew haters. Karen and I believe that they should be treated as traitors to Israel and to the Jewish people. A cherem and excommunication are simply not enough. RJA

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:37 AM | Comments (2)

November 17, 2006

Time Magazine Caught Lying

"Would an editor who had never visited the scene of a photograph deliberately contradict the photographer's account of events? Is it possible that someone would change a caption that ends up incorrectly describing what took place? Moreover, would a prominent media outlet accept the claims of a terrorist organization over that of its own photographer?

"Sounds hard to believe, but according to recent revelations by a photojournalist, this is exactly what happened with a photograph that was featured in Time Magazine during Israel's conflict with Hizbollah."

For the full story, go to Honest Reporting.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:32 PM | Comments (2)

October 24, 2006

NY Times Editor Recants

Public Editor Recants: Times Was Wrong to Expose Terrorist Surveillance Program. But some Times critics find Barney Calame's mea culpa lame: "While it's a close call now, as it was then, I don't think the article should have been published."

Full story at Times Watch

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

Steven Vincent Honored -- At Last

Seraphic Secret has written about the wise and courageous journalist Steven Vincent and his widow Lisa Ramaci. We are heartened to learn that finally Steven Vincent is being honored by Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Our friend Yehudit at Kesher has the full story.

We sincerely hope that this well deserved recognition brings some measure of comfort to Lisa Ramaci.

May Steven Vincent's memory be a blessing.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)

September 27, 2006

Free To Be A Muslim Jew-Killer

Ah, Islam, the religion that keeps on giving -- more and more Jew-hatred to the world.

For yet another example of the religion of peace grinnning and calling for the "beautiful murder" of Jews, please click here.

I Have a Dream

Egypt has a peace treaty with Israel, but that doesn't mean that this barbarian can't express his "I Have a Dream" vision.

Here in America too many sit passively and listen to groups like CAIR as they defend Jihadists , as they accuse us of being intolerant of Islam. Just look at this video as CAIR tramples on free speech, as CAIR brings America one step closer to Dhimmitude.

They claim that it is we who are the problem, that it is the democratic, truth-telling west, Jews and Christians, who are oppressing Muslims. In truth, they are on the march as tyrannical oppressors, abroad and here at home.

They are organized in an offensive attack of intimidation against the west, more specifically against Jews for we are an easy target; the first in society to be hated, the last to be defended. The left in America have already abandoned us via Israel. The Democratic Party is slowly but inexorably doing the same.

Unless good and honest people wake up and fight back--refuse to be intimidated by polite shadow Jihad groups -- it will soon be too late.

If your local TV station gives air time to CAIR or an organization like it--call and protest. Contact the advertisers and tell them that you will no longer buy their products.

Never forget that it was a lawsuit and siezure of property brought by Morris Dees and the Southern Poverty Law Center, that bankrupted the Ku Klux Kan.

We should follow the same tactic against these jihadist groups. They are highly vulnerable.

This is a life and death struggle.
Your children and their children's existence is at stake.

These people want to enslave you.
When they say peace, they are speaking of jihad.
When they say love, they are speaking of hate.
And when they speak of tolerance, they are describing your prison.

Jihad vs. Amadeus

What you saw in those two appalling videos above are not isolated incidents, not cultural aberrations. Just look at this story from Germany where a Mozart opera has been cancelled because, gee, what a shock, Muslims have protested, their sensibilities have been offended.

Funny how selective is the Muslim sensibility. I do not recall one single public march or protest when two Fox journalists were kidnapped in Gaza, held for weeks, and then forced to publicly convert to the religion of peace.

Can you imagine if they had been made to convert to Christianity?

Consider Rosie O’Donnell, the great cultural crusader, who, on The View, said that radical Christianity is just as threatning as radical Islam.

Funny, I don't recall any Christian homicide bombers; nor do I know of any Christian schools or clerics who teach doctrines of murder, genocide and Jew-hatred. Gee, have any Seraphic Friends heard of Christians who practice honor killings?

I could go on and on, but really, why bother? Rosie and her truly mad fellow travelers have no interest in truth, merely in advancing their radical agenda of same-sex marriage, even at the cost of aligning themselves with Islam Nazis, an ideology that does not hesitate to have lesbians publicly tortured and murdered by the Islamic death sentence:stoning, preferably by very small stones.

Karen taped this little piece of intellectual madness for me. The audience applauded. And Rosie, a true Hollywood dim-wit, smirked at poor Elisabeth Hasselbeck -- and I felt like weeping, for Rosie is not alone in those who believe quite passionately and self-righteously in such absolute filth.

Long ago I learned that talent, great talent, is often given to very stupid, very shallow people.

Lying Low

Can you imagine if Jews had forced Muslims to convert to Judaism?

Forget for a moment that we are not allowed to proseletyze -- but just imagine. Pogroms, I assure you, would sweep the globe.

The NY Times would find said pogroms "regrettable, but under the circumstances, tragically comprehensible."

This, I guarantee.

The repulsive forced conversion in Gaza should have brought hundreds, no thousands of good and decent Muslims into the streets in protest.

Instead, there was a vast and terrifying silence.

I have heard it said that good and decent Muslims are afraid for their lives. Afraid of the jihadists, and so they lay low.

This is no argument.

This was settled before, during and after World War II when German citizens also fell back on indifference, on a vast genocidal silence, as their Jewish neighbors were murdered en masse.

Evil at the Core

And its root cause is not, as the NY Times naively insists, "poverty and lack of economic progress."

No, this Jew-hatred comes from where it has always come from: pure evil.

And this evil comes from the most "advanced" Arab society in the MIddle East, Egypt. A land that receives more American foreign aid than Israel.

Jew-hatred is everywhere in the Arab world; it is widely accepted, and it is taught in the religious madrassas. Imbided with mother's milk, this rabid Jew-hatred is endemic to the Muslim world, from Jakarta to Damascus it is unquestioned and usually state sponsored.

INTERPOLATION:

Several years ago, archeologists in Saudi Arabia made a startling discovery: ancient writing on several stone tablets in the limitless desert. The archeologists were electrified at what the tablets might mean.

They looked closer at the tablets and realized that the writing inscribed on the stone was... ancient Hebrew. They were, to put it mildly, hugely excited, but knowing their political and religious masters -- truly horrified, truly terrified.

When informed of the tablets, of the ancient and invaluable Hebrew inscriptions, The King of Saudi Arabia--I'm not making this up--ordered this archeological and historical treasure to be reburied under the dunes of the endless desert.

Forever.

Any hint of Jews, of Judaism, of true history, is simply unacceptable to these prehistoric barbarians.

This outrage was revealed by Sandra MacKey in her magnificent, ground breaking book: The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom.

This is still one of the best books about a dysfunctional country. Actually, Saudi Arabia is not a country, it's a corporation fully owned by a truly dysfunctional family. MacKey wrote this stunning book in secret, smuggled the manuscript out of the repressive kingdom at great peril to her life, and after it was published she was promptly barred from entering the kingdom ever again.

In fact, so accurate and scathing is her portrait of this mad, loopy, medieval and blood-drenched country (which, by the way, Ms. MacKey has great affection for) that the Ibn Saud Royal family has farbade her name ever to be spoken in their most royal presence. Now that's the kind of blurb money just cannot buy. But you Seraphic Reader should purchase this book, from its pages you will get a startling glimpse of the Islamic madness we are facing and fighting.

You will get a dose of true horror, something we all badly need for I fear too many of us are are still not prepared, even after 9-11, even after the daily homicide bombings in Iraq where women and children are the targets, yes, I fear that far too many of us still refuse to recognize the hot core of evil that is the Islamic enemy we are fighting.

END INTERPOLATION:

And it has absolutely nothing to do with to Palestinian Israeli conflict.

If you cling to that belief, you are, forgive me, if not delusional, a moron.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:38 AM | Comments (8)

September 26, 2006

Bubba is Back!

Here he is, once again, angrily wagging his finger, running off at the mouth, practically foaming at the mouth, his Arkansas accent deepening along with his self-righteous wrath.

Bubba is back in all his glory.

What a delightful treat.

Bubba: the gift that keeps on giving.

And you just know that when The Finger starts waving, jabbing and wagging and Bubba all purple-faced can't stop talking for one single minute and he just flat-out starts making things up so fast that Fox journalist Chris Wallace can only sit there with a half smile on his face because he just knows that Bubba is digging himself a trench he's not gonna soon be able to crawl out of, well when this happens you just know that Bubba is back, and G-d love him, half of what he says ain't true -- and the other half are just plain lies.

"Well, it depends on what the definition of is... is."

Oh, the good ol' days.

I have to admit, I miss 'em. I miss Bubba. Let's face it, he's really amusing.

It's not often you have a genuine, pathological narcissist sitting in the White House, defacto, the most powerful man in the world.

Bubba's still ticked off about the ABC docudrama, The Path to 9-11. You see, to a true narcissist, and make no mistake about it, clinically Clinton fits the bill to a T, the movie is only about, well, Bubba and his administration.

It's not about the John O'Neill, the brave FBI agent who desperately and relentlessly battled OBL for so many years.
It's not about courageous CIA operatives who were out in the killing fields face-to-face with the Jihadist enemy.
It's not about the destructive political decisions made by the Church Committee that set up a wall between the FBI and the CIA that made it impossible to share vital intelligence.
It's not about the emasculation of the CIA by the Democrats, making it illegal to assasinate America's enemies.
And of course, it's most certainly not about the 3,000 men, women and children, innocents all, butchered on 9-11 by the Islamic Nazis.

Nope, myopic as always, Bubba can only see, well, Bubba.

For in the end, Bubba and his loyalists are fighting a savage but fruitless rear-guard action; an Orwellian attempt to manipulate history in their favor.

Using that infamous Southern charm, plus a strong dose of lies, and Soviet style intimidation, the former President is, make no mistake about it, headed for an ugly final reckoning, an historical crumbling: Bubba the Berlin Wall.

I feel your pain.

Translation: I feel what I feel like feeling when I feel like it -- so that it appears like true compassion.

Did I hear the former President correctly when he said that:

The far right accused him of "being obsessed with OBL."

Huh?

That his administration "contracted" to kill OBL?

Please, more details?

Bubba's defensive explosion is priceless.

Bubba accuses Wallace of "moving his bones" by asking a question, a question about the pusuit of OBL that includes President Bush.

Okay, I've read my Faulkner, my Carson McCullers, my William Styron, my Harper Lee, and perhaps the greatest Southern novelist of them all: Jetta Carleton, but I have never come across this particular southern ditty. So, if any Seraphic Friend can provide a translation, we would be e-tuhnally grateful.

Moving his bones?

Good grief, is this bad Mafia dialogue channeled through the back country roads of hillbilly Arkansas?

Eleven times, Bubba demands that we read Richard A. Clarke's book for the truth.

Uh, reality check, Bubba: Clarke's book is not the only word on the subject. And hardly the final word. Do check out Lawrence Wright's maginficent The Looming Tower. It's elegantly written, honest to all concerned, and serves no political master, least of all the author--which is more than can be said for Clarke's self-serving volume. And do take note that The Looming Tower is written by a New Yorker Magazine staff writer, hardly a member of the vast far right conspiracy you and Hillary seem convinced are out there to destroy your most harmonious partnership.

INTERPOLATION

I'm the only member of this far right conspiracy. I keep trying to recruit others into my clever but evil plot, but everyone turns me down. They tell me that conspiracies do not exist.

Little do they know...

Alone, but filled with iron resolve, I continue to weave my diabolical Seraphic Web.

END INTERPOLATION

Oh, and Clarke's book isn't even that complimentary to the Clinton administration. Clarke makes it clear that there is enough blame to go around.

Makes you wonder if Bubba even read the book.

And has Bubba now set a new precedent? Can President Bush now go on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and say something like:

"I'd like to put this interview in context. You are a radical secular, leftist network and as such all your questions are designed to sandbag me as opposed to the soft balls you lob at Third World Dictators you seem to adore. And you got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever."

Does this sound, um, acceptable?

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 08:44 AM | Comments (16)

September 25, 2006

Steven Vincent - Still in the Red Zone

Steven Vincent was a great and courageous American journalist who was tortured and murdered by Jihadists in Iraq.

Whereas mainstream journalists stayed tucked safely in the Green Zone and filed stories that were gathered and written by Iraqi stringers, Steven Vincent bravely went into the heart of the beast. He wanted to tell the truth. For this he paid with his life.

Journalists everywhere should remember Steven Vincent and hold him up as a shining example of a journalist who put truth above ideology.

Here is Kesher's extraordinary memorial to Steven, a blogblast that Seraphic Secret proudly took part in.

Seraphic Friend David Paulin writes a fine piece about the very short memory of the NY Times.

And a fine follow up article, Snubbed Again.

And here, Steven's widow, Lisa Ramaci writes to NY Times journalist Edward Wong, reminding Wong of Steven's life, work, and of his cruel death.

Dear Mr. Wong,

I am writing regarding your article, Iraq Stumbling in Bid to Purge Its Rogue Police, in Sunday's Times. I must say, although the article was extremely well-researched and written, I am both puzzled and dismayed by the fact that you did not bother to mention Steven's name in it. Given that he broke the story about the rising infiltration of the Basra police force by these rogue elements, and given that he literally gave his life for it, I would have thought a reference to him would not have been out of line, and would indeed have been a graceful and well-deserved tribute to his courage.

But for some reason the Times seems to have totally forgotten about Steven; it's as if he didn't exist, didn't write for them, didn't die as a direct result of an op-ed the paper published. I think now of the series of articles by Michael Moss and David Rohde that ran in May, beginning with Misjudgments Marred US Plans for Iraqi Police, and going on from there. Again, in those thousands of words, not one mention was made of Steven. Not since October 2005, in Kirk Semple's piece from Basra, has there been any real acknowledgment of him; the last time he was mentioned (in passing) in some Times article about Iraq, his name was misspelled. In Ali Fadhil's recent op-ed Iraq's Endangered Journalists, Fadhil actually had the audacity to claim that "foreign reporters have the advantage of being considered untouchable by the Iraqi police and security forces." Dear God, does no one remember history any more? He was only killed a year ago, not in the Mesozoic era!

Was it because he was only a freelancer? Do his kidnapping and murder not matter because he was not employed by some major media organization? Are the facts too unsavory? I can only ascribe this blanket silence of him and the circumstances of his death to those realities. But he was one of you, even if he did not get a steady paycheck, and for you all to close ranks and seemingly agree to pretend he never even existed is absolutely shameful. What would it have taken for you to make a brief reference to him and the circumstances of his death? How many words would it have added? Fadhil, Moss and Rohde never met him, so perhaps their omission is somewhat understandable, but you - you spent time with him, ate with him, talked with him. There is no way you could not remember Steven - he wasn't the kind of guy you can put out of your mind that easily.

You wrote in your lovely email below how much you admired him, but it seems you have forgotten how highly you lauded him one year ago, and now no longer even feel the need to mention his name. However, I take comfort in knowing there are people out there in the blog universe, people I have never even met, who admired Steven and who still do, and who are not afraid or unwilling to write about him despite his mere freelancer status. I refer you to the following sites:

Big Carnival
SeraphicPress
Keshertalk

where you will see that there are still those who feel it important to remind the world of Steven's life and death. I am sure you are a very nice guy - I was touched by the flowers you and Alan sent for the funeral, and took comfort in the words you wrote below - but am very sorry to say I no longer believe them the way I once did. And that is a real shame.

Sincerely,

Lisa Ramaci

As of this morning, Wong has not replied to Lisa's letter.

This is the letter Edward Wong, edwongnyt@yahoo.com, wrote to Lisa Ramaci after Steven Vincent was murdered.

Hi Lisa,

This is Edward Wong, writing from Baghdad. The day we learned of Steven's death, I left a message on a New York number that Steven had given me when I met him in Basra in June. We haven't spoken yet, but I'm just writing to let you know that my thoughts are with you and Steven's other friends and family
members on this weekend, the weekend of his wake and funeral. I know you've spoken with Alan Chin, and he's probably told you that Steven left a remarkable impression on the two of us. We spent many evenings with Steven in Basra, talking for hours over dinners in the Marbid Hotel about the war. I was struck by Steven's strong viewpoints, but most of all by his willingness to set his feet on the ground here and see what was really going on in Iraq. What he sacrificed for the story is a price that no journalist should ever have to pay. But in Basra, I saw a man who was truly determined to make a difference with his work, and that's one of the highest callings one can aspire to. He was fulfilling that in his final days, and nothing filled him with more excitement than communicating to the world what he was seeing with his own eyes. I know that that is small consolation for his loss, but it might provide a little comfort in the darkest moments.

Perhaps we'll meet when I'm back in New York this fall. Please take care.

Best,
Edward Wong
The New York Times

And here is Steven Vincent's blog from Iraq that was the basis for his fine book, In the Red Zone.

Steven's book is still the finest work I've read about Iraq. Don't miss it.

We sincerely hope that Lisa Ramaci will find some measure of comfort knowing that there are thousands of good people who care deeply about her husband's life, death and extraordinary legacy.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:34 AM | Comments (3)

September 18, 2006

Steven Vincent: Snubbed Again

"In the old Soviet Union, leaders who fell into disfavor with the Stalinist government invariably had their images air brushed out of official photos.

"And out of history.

"Something similar is going on at The New York Times in respect to Steven Vincent, the only American journalist to have been murdered in Iraq.

Read the rest of Seraphic Friend David Paulin's article here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2006

Memory Lapse

Steven Vincent's brutal murder may have been triggered by an Op-Ed he wrote for The New York Times. Why did the paper's editors forget this?

By David Paulin

Steven Vincent, the only American journalist murdered in Iraq, left behind an impressive body of work that is noteworthy for its incisive analysis and moral clarity. His book, “In the Red Zone: A Journey Into the Soul of Iraq,” drew on a number of fine articles, written mainly for conservative magazines such as National Review and FrontPage Magazine.

The quality of Vincent’s work owed much to the fact that he traveled alone, outside the Green Zone. He avoided the mainstream media’s formulaic reporting; it viewed the war, insurgency, and reconstruction through a prism of “mounting” casualties, suicide bombings, and prisoner abuse scandals.

When Vincent was murdered just over one year ago in the southern port city of Basra, the mainstream media responded with extensive coverage. His killing, it was widely noted, may have been in retaliation for an Op-Ed piece that Vincent published, two days earlier, in The New York Times.

Vincent described how the British Army had ignored the infiltration of Basra’s police force by Iranian-backed Shiite militias and political groups, including those loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. This coincided with a spike in fundamentalist violence in the southern port city.

He noted as well that police vehicles apparently were used to abduct and kill people. Coincidently, two days after that article ran, a vehicle similar to what Vincent had described intercepted the writer and his translator, Nour Itais, off a Basra street. Later, Iraqi police found Vincent’s battered body on the outskirts of town with a gunshot wound to the head. Nour was shot and left for dead; but she survived.

Forgotten by The Times?

The Times’ Op-Ed editors appear to have forgotten that Vincent’s Op-Ed piece may be the thing that got him killed. In an Op-Ed the Times ran on Sept. 6, "Iraq's Endangered Journalists," author Ali Fadhil overlooked Vincent’s death when writing about Iraq’s beleaguered journalists.

You can be sure Times’ Op-Ed editors scrutinized every word of that Op-Ed. Yet Fadhil, an Iraqi physician-turned journalist, wrote something that was obviously false: “As dangerous as Iraq is for foreign reporters, they at least have the advantage of being considered untouchable by the Iraqi police and security forces.”

What about Steven Vincent?

**********

Seraphic Friend David Paulin has written a remarkable article about a remarkable man who should never be forgotten. To read the rest of this important story, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:26 PM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

Conversion by Kalachnikov

"The most shocking thing about the Centanni-Wiig "conversion" is the silence that has followed. First, there is silence from Islam. Shouldn't Muslim religious leaders, and particularly "beautiful and kind-hearted" Palestinian Muslim religious leaders, vehemently condemn the forced conversions? As Bostom put it, "Will such Muslim authorities at least recognize the acute predicament of Centanni and Wiig by issuing a fatwa stating that their 'conversion,' being under duress, was not bona fide, condemning in advance any Muslim who might now attack these journalists for 'apostasy' from Islam?"

To read the entire essay by Diana West, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:24 AM | Comments (4)

August 30, 2006

Plame Out

"But now we have the final word on who did disclose the name and occupation of Valerie Plame, and it turns out to be someone whose opposition to the Bush policy in Iraq has—like Robert Novak's—long been a byword in Washington. It is particularly satisfying that this admission comes from two of the journalists—Michael Isikoff and David Corn—who did the most to get the story wrong in the first place and the most to keep it going long beyond the span of its natural life."

At last, the facts of the absurd Valerie Plame/Joseph Wilson scandal. Revealed are the lies and distortions relentlessly advanced by the Democrats, and supported by the liberal media. In the end, one must conclude that these players are the painfully familiar left-of-center ideologues motivated by a hatred for President Bush and his policies so zealous that it overshadows what should be the self evident search for truth.

To read the entire article by liberal columnist Christopher Hitchens, please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)

NY Times: Victimizing the Innocent

Imagine you are the world's most powerful newspaper and you have invested your credibility in yet another story line that is falling apart, crumbling as inexorably as Jayson Blair's fabrications and the flawed reporting on Saddam Hussein's supposed WMD. What to do?

If you're the New York Times and the story is the alleged gang rape of a black woman by three white Duke lacrosse players—a claim shown by mounting evidence to be almost certainly fraudulent—you tone down your rhetoric while doing your utmost to prop up a case that's been almost wholly driven by prosecutorial and police misconduct.

And by bad journalism. Worse, perhaps, than the other recent Times embarrassments. The Times still seems bent on advancing its race-sex-class ideological agenda, even at the cost of ruining the lives of three young men who it has reason to know are very probably innocent. This at a time when many other true believers in the rape charge, such as feminist law professor Susan Estrich, have at last seen through the prosecution's fog of lies and distortions.

To read the rest of this devastating article by Stuart Taylor Jr. please click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

August 14, 2006

LA Times: Journalistic Atrocity

"The Los Angeles Times made quite a splash with its lengthy article detailing how American troops allegedly committed atrocities during the Vietnam War 40 years ago. Left-wing bloggers have been swooning over the Sunday showcase piece, "Vietnam: The War Crimes Files." And no wonder. The whopping 4,400-word article, describing alleged atrocities as if they happened only yesterday, was not really about Vietnam: It was about Iraq.

"Only the most obtuse reader could miss that. The authors slipped "Iraq" into the narrative after 400 words, with mentions of alleged atrocities and prisoner abuse there.

"To date, conservative bloggers and readers have paid little attention to “The War Crimes Files.” Presumably, they glanced at it and quickly dismissed it as more agenda-driven reporting aimed at stopping “Bush’s War.”

"In their cursory look, however, those readers missed an intriguing element in the story – and perhaps its most important element. The lead author, Nick Turse, is not a staff writer like co-author Deborah Nelson. He is “a freelance journalist living in New Jersey” who, as an editor’s note mentioned, had uncovered archival material on Vietnam War atrocities “while researching his doctoral dissertation.”

"What the editor's note omitted is that Turse also has a long history of supporting radical leftist causes and writing for radical websites and lefty publications such as Mother Jones and The Village Voice. Hiring him to research and write a piece on Vietnam War atrocities was comparable to hiring a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan to pen a major news article on affirmative action and race relations."

To read the rest of Seraphic Friend Daviud Paulin's fascinating article, click here.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 03:59 PM | Comments (1)

July 25, 2006

The Media, Immigration, and Islam

By Cathy Seipp

If admitting immigrants means making choices, CATHY SEIPP argues that even “moderate muslims” need to step to the end of the line.

I have no idea how many Mexican immigrants would be reasonable to allow into this country. But obviously for everyone who makes the cut, someone else does not.

And as long as there are millions of hard-working, pro-American immigrants from Latin American and Asia who would like to come here but can’t, why are we letting in anyone from a culture where much of the populace is at least sympathetic to the notion of this country being ruled by Sharia law?

Read the rest where it was originally published in Politics Central

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 10:55 AM | Comments (8)

July 16, 2006

Who is the Enemy?

If you have any doubts about who the enemy is, take a close look at The Infidel Bloggers Alliance and their take on, who else? The New York Times.

The sniper the NY Times finds so "incredibly courageous" is peering through his scope, not at some abstract enemy, not at some paper target, but probably at an American soldier, or at one of our allies.

But does that matter to the NY Times?

No, it does not.

The NY Times are the paper of traitors.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 04:08 PM | Comments (2)

June 06, 2006

The Fortress of The Press

My Seraphic Secret article, Presbyterian Terror has just been published in the Friday, June 2, 2006 of The Jewish Press. I'd like to thank to Senior Editor Jason Maoz for his fine editorial work on my meandering piece. Mr. Maoz has supported Seraphic Secret from the very beginning.

Jihadists or Global Warming: What Do You Worry About the Man Who is Building a Nuclear Bomb in his Basement or the Notion that Sea Levels Might Rise by Approximately Three Inches in About Hundred Years and if That Happens You Know What Might Happen? I Have No Idea And Neither Does Anybody Else So Forgive Me if I Choose to Worry About the Nasty Dirty Bomb Because Obviously I'm Just a Shallow Republican and for Confirmation Just Ask Ted Kennedy For There's A Man Who's Intimately Familiar With Things Shallow; Remember Mary Jo Kopechne.

It should be noted that under Mr. Maoz's strong editorial hand, The Jewish Press has emerged as the most articulate Jewish newspaper in America. A newspaper that consistently gives voice to clear anti-Jihadist discourse. Week after week The Jewish Press publishes quality articles that are not diluted by the muddled thinking of the politically correct elite who play directly into the hands of the genocidal IslamoNazis.

The Jewish Press, as far as I know, does not spill ink about global warming, except insofar as to put the whole dumb issue into proper perspective, which is: We should be worrying about the immediate threat of those who wish to murder us: The Iranians who are up-front about their desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, and Jihadists here, there and everywhere, who are furiously working to assemble a dirty bomb to explode in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, London, Paris, Madrid, Anywhere. That sea levels might gradually rise within the next hundred years or fifty years, seems, um, quite beside the point. And the Jewish Press, unlike so many other kvetchy liberal Jewish weeklies, will simply not make believe that Al Gore has anything worth hearing or repeating.

When it comes to local and national politics, The Jewish Press again breaks ranks with the knee-jerk liberals who are still voting for John F Kennedy.

INTERPOLATION #1:
Read JFK's inaugural address.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Gosh, but these are not the words of a modern day Democrat. Nope, the fallen--on my Bar Mitzvah Shabbos no less, that was fun, lemme tell you--JFK sounds, gulp, like a Republican, like President Bush talking about the necesasary changes we must bring to the medieval Arab world. Watch out House of Al Saud, we're coming. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but your downfall is inevitable. You were riding camels and then suddenly careening around in Cadillacs. Get ready for the camels again.
END INTERPOLATION#1:

INTERPOLATION #2:
Anywhooo: The Jewish Press pretty consistently goes Republican. Except when it endorses a local Democratic Assemblyman like Dov Hikind, who lives, breathes and votes Republican, but in his district, well, a Republican will get elected when the Moshiach comes.

And yes, full disclosure, Dov, a very good man, I'm proud to say is Karen's cousin by marriage. Dov's wife Shani, is Karen's first cousin. Shani should have been an actress. Watch her on the campaign trail; she delivers a fine and fiery speech.
END INTERPOLATION #2:

Troublesome Red Lines: Which Would Force the Jews of The Jewish Nation to Once and For All Proclaim Their Jewishness and the Jewish Claim on the Jewish Land of Israel Using The Big Jewish Book, The Torah, as the Ultimate Source, and Jewish History as the Justification; How Very Embarrasing Say Many Jews. How Very Jewish Says This Jewish Blogger

Back to The Jewish Press.

Uncompromising in its support of Israel and her existential battle against rejectionist Arab states, recognizing the danger of the American Left, not only to Israel, but to American Democracy, The Jewish Press under Maoz's cool editorial voice, stands out among the major Jewish weeklies as a prophetic voice.

Before Jews were brutally expelled from Gaza, The Jewish Press warned, in numerous editorials and articles, that this rash action would not diminish terrorist activities, that in fact, the Arabs would view this withdrawal as a sign of weakness.

INTERPOLATION #3:
Here in Los Angeles, The Jewish Journal, like almost every other liberal Jewish weekly in America, vigorously supported the withdrawal, this policy of Jewish ethinic cleansing--and surprise, surprise, continues to call for the same in Judea and Samaria--and seems to support the division of Jerusalem.

Think about this: Israel has never drawn any Red Lines for the Arabs.

Thus the Arabs keep demanding more concessions, for nothing is holy to Israel. If nothing is holy, everything is negotiable. If everything is negotiable, Zionism becomes a mere afterthought--and national existence becomes something of a dry footnote.

The Jewish Press understands this and continually calls for Israel to draw those oh-so-troublesome Red Lines.
END INTERPOLATION #3:

And sure enough, terrorist incidents have increased, and Gaza has become one huge terrorist factory since the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza. To add to the madness, Hamas was elected as the Arab's government and a major part of their campaign platform, along with the catchy: "We'll Drive the Jews Into the Sea--Just See" was -- gee-willikers, what a shock -- that Hamas "forced the Jews out of Gaza."

Thus, lovely downtown Gazastan.

But enough of Hamas and and their, oh let's see, their whacky fundamentalist penchant for murdering their sisters and wives and aunts and cousins in that honored tradition called--and don't you just love the Orwellian use of language here: Honor Killings. As if there's anything honorable about slitting some poor woman's throat on the merest suspicion that she might have held hands with a man from another tribe.

I don't know about you, but I have this vaguely humanistic notion that, I will confess, goes totally against all the multi-cultural clap-trap that we are force-fed every single day, and the notion is this: that any society that values primitive notions of honor over human life is kind of, you know, primitive and oppressive and should be radically remade. Like we remade German society after WWII. Like we remade the equally poisonous Japanese society after WWII.

But enough of these tiresome terrorists who are so well covered in The Jewish Press. Let's move on to the really fun stuff. To the column in The Jewish Press that just drives us wild--actually the reason I'm writing this article in the first place. I just got, er, sidetracked with all of the above. Lack of discipline is such a curse.

Karen's Absolutely Favorite Column: Better Than People Magazine, Better Than Psychology Today, Don't Even Mention Variety or Hollywood Reporter, I Even Like it Better than Guns & Ammo, So What is This Column in The Jewish Press that Evokes Such Worshipful Enthusiasm and Loyalty?

Besides the fine political and Torah writing in The Jewish Press, I must tell you about Karen's very favorite section: Machberes. This literally means, Notebook. What a fine and modest name for this column. Is it weekly? Biweekly? I have absolutely no idea. But when Machberes appears, oh the joy in Casa Avrech.

Karen prepares a huge bowl of steaming tea, settles and sinks into her very favorite spot in the living room couch, and just loses herself in this excellent and awe inspiring Jewish version of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. For Machebres is a bridge between the Hasidic present and past. And as with all things Jewish, past and present inevitably merge to the point where the present tense is exclusively used when speaking of a Hasidic Rebbe living in Williamsburg today and his ancestors who lived in Poland a hundred years ago.

Karen will read a section out loud to me and exclaim: "I didn't know that, did you?"
Well, needless to say, if Karen doesn't have a clue, I do not have a clue as to the clue.

Machberes is a column, no it's a Talmud-like commentary that covers the world of the various Hasidic Courts in America, Canada and Israel. Here we learn the sometimes tortuous family trees of the magnificent Hasidic Rebbes and their progeny. Karen and I read the family tree of the Satmar Rebbe ZT'L and I kid you not, I felt like the anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, trying to puzzle out the kinship terminiology of a long lost tribe -- it was that complicated. Through Machberes, we glimpse a world and a way of life that we thought was no more, a world of holy dynasties and sometimes not-so-holy rivalries. Machberes is our final victory over Hitler, over all our enemies.

If you do not already read The Jewish Press, you are missing the core voice of the observant Jewish people at this time in history. It's a demographic that is growing by leaps and bounds. Observant Jewish families have, on the average 5 to 6 children per family. Hasidic families have 8-10 children per family.

Interesting to note, my Christian friends tell me that to check the pulse of the Jewish consciousness that's not online, the paper they regularly check out is The Jewish Press.
"It's the genuine thing," states a religious Catholic friend.
My Christian buddies consider the other Jewish weeklies just knock-offs of the Mainstream Media; one Christian friend nailed these weeklies by referring to them as "The New York Times Light."

Ouch.

Don't miss Jason Maoz's weekly column: Media Monitor. Here in cool and polite tones, he often murders the Mainstream Media for their multiple crimes against Israel and the truth. Other times he reviews a not-so-well-known-book and turns our attention to some heroic task that the Jewish community has shamefully neglected. In all cases, Maoz's facts are correct, his analysis dead-on.

Let it be noted that Maoz is Hebrew for fortress.

P.S. Lest you think The Jewish Press is without blemish, I'm here to tell you that there is one thing very wrong with The Jewish Press. They do not carry Seraphic friend Jake's new comic strip, an absolutely perfect dissection of Jews/Hollywood/ Kabbalah/politics/what-have-you. This new cartoon/parody Shmooze or Lose runs in The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. Editor Rob Eshman has hit a homerun with Jake's absolutely hysterical strip. For as we all know here at Seraphic Secret JIAF.*

*Jake Is Always Funny

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 02:37 PM | Comments (9)

May 26, 2006

Cindy Sheehan Revealed

It was bound to happen. Cindy Sheehan has, gulp, written a book.

My good friend Cathy Seipp is a brave fearless woman.

She actually sat down and read it.

Now she reveals Sheehan as the true AntiSemite she is. Seraphic Secret has said over and over again that the danger to Israel, the danger to freedom in America comes from the left. Sheehan's book is a textbook example of leftist, anti-American, pro-Jihadist beliefs.

Posted by Robert J. Avrech at 12:44 PM | Comments (3)

April 21, 2006

Of Words

An incredibly important