COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Saturday, August 08, 2009

The Chicago Way.

"But I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking." President Barack Hussein Obama.




WH to Dems: Punch back twice as hard
By: Carrie Budoff Brown
August 6, 2009 05:11 PM EST

Top White House aides gave Senate Democrats a recess battle plan on Thursday, arming the lawmakers with tips for avoiding disastrous town hall meetings while showing them polling on popular aspects of the reform effort.

Senior White House adviser David Axelrod and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina told senators to focus on the insured and how they would benefit from “consumer protections" in the overhaul, such as ending the practice of denying insurance based on preexisting conditions and ensuring the continuity of coverage between jobs.

They showed video clips of the confrontational town halls that have dominated the media coverage, and told senators to do more prep work than usual for their public meetings by making sure their own supporters turn out, senators and aides said.

And they screened TV ads and reviewed the various campaigns by critics of the Democratic plan.

“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,” Messina said, according to an official who attended the meeting.

The Chicago Way


73 comments:

  1. The Chi-town Way.

    Promises Made
    Promises Kept
    .

    Give those protesters in the video the power of the police, and away we go.

    We get the "best" of both,
    the Chi-town Way.

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  2. Eating Taxes
    Shitting Green

    You don’t need a Goldman Sachs connection to invest in Coda Automotive, an electric car start-up based in California, but it certainly doesn’t hurt.

    Coda recently announced that it had raised $24 million, with an undisclosed portion coming from its new advisory board member, Henry M. Paulson, the former Treasury secretary, who, before that role, was the chairman and chief executive of Goldman Sachs.

    Coda’s chief executive, Kevin Czinger, is a former Goldman Sachs executive director, leaving in 1995. Mr. Czinger said in an interview that he brought Mr. Paulson into the company because he had “an interest in the environment and in China, plus he saw the business opportunity.”

    Coda’s co-chairman, Steven Heller, is also a Goldman Sachs man. Until his retirement in 2002, he had served as the head of global mergers and acquisitions at Goldman Sachs and reported to Mr. Paulson. “He was my boss for many years, and I’ve known him for 20 years,” Mr. Heller said in an interview. “He’s a tough, rational investor who understands our business model and our strategy and wants to be part of it.


    Shake shake shake
    that money tree!

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  3. ... in June Coda said it would also seek federal funding, to establish an American battery factory with Yardney Technical Products (which developed batteries for the B-2 bomber and NASA’s Mars exploration vehicles). Coda plans to have its car on the market (initially only in California) next year.

    Electric Car’s Connection to Goldman Sachs.

    Federal Socialists, on the march!

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  4. The Federals are "investing" everywhere, in the US, are they not?

    They own 30% of the land, outright, and have a Constitutional claim to your income.

    If that is not socialism ...

    And it is nothing new, at all.

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  5. And now, with the ruling in Kelo v. City of New London, the Federals can take any real property, in the "Public Interest". Even if that interest is only to increase revenue, to the Federals.

    Or any subordinate governing power, State or Local.

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  6. Ever notice how Obama starts sounding GHETTO when he wants to MAKE a point?

    Interesting..

    Born in Hawaii?

    Raised in Indonesia

    Went to Harvard....

    I guess he's just an actor....

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  7. The tutelage of the right rev wright no doubt.

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  8. "Are you for civilization or barbarism, life or death, wealth or envy? Are you an exponent of excellence and accomplishment or of a leveling creed of troglodytic frenzy and hatred?"

    George Gilder

    This is the question we all need to ask ourselves. Whenever we advocate a particular cause, a particular stategy or tactic, we must ask ourselves: How does this square with the above quote?"

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  9. Thanks, vik, I just put that video in right before this one. It's for the record until YouTube has to remove it....

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  10. geez, it looks like rat has had some surgery... :o

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  11. George wants us to believe that there are only binary choices to be made, when anyone with life experience knows that it not the reality.

    There are innurmerable shades of gray. Beyond the stark choices GG represents as the only alternatives.

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  12. We can take Mr Gilder's stark choices and apply them to the Health Care Insurance Reform debate.

    Are you for civilization or barbarism?
    Civilization provides for the common care of the people. Barbarism leaves each on his own.
    Civilization stands for ObamaCare, rather than each providing for themselves, on their own.

    Are you for Life or Death?
    Without proper longterm care, the uninsured die. Obviously those senior US residents that choose life, choose MediCare. That is Government Care = ObamaCare for Seniors, which for those that choose life, would want to supply to US all.

    Are you an exponent of excellence and accomplishment or of a leveling creed of troglodytic frenzy and hatred?"

    This being the clincher. Excellence and accomplishment would take that PA man out of the ambulance and into longterm care.

    Only those that subscribe to the leveling creed of laissez faire capitalism would allow their troglodytic frenzy and hatred of those less fortunate to blind themeselves to the need of their fellow residents.

    George Gilder, a man for all seasons.

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  13. That little implant, should be fully cover by ObamaCare, whit.

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  14. desert rat said:

    "George wants us to believe that there are only binary choices to be made, when anyone with life experience knows that it not the reality.

    There are innurmerable shades of gray. Beyond the stark choices GG represents as the only alternatives."


    and

    "We can take Mr Gilder's stark choices and apply them to the Health Care Insurance Reform debate."

    Rat, I don't know what else to say except that your interpretation of Gilder's reamark are simply ill-tempered and quarrelsome.

    Let's take your description a "binary choice", civilization vs barbarism.

    The dictionary says civilization is ( in the context of the way we are discussing it):

    An advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.

    The dictionary also says that barbarism is:

    A barbarous or uncivilized state or condition.

    In other words: civilization and barbarism are opposites.

    If there is no such thing as "civilization" or "barbarism" should I write to the publishers of the dictionary and tell them that DR says there are no such things?

    But there are such things, aren't there, Rat? The dictionary is able to put up these definitions because they exist as concepts. Gilder is dealing in concepts.

    The reality of existence may be that there are many shades of gray. That is to say: no one is completely civilized and no one is completly barbaric.

    But it is cantankerous to say that we cannot choose one concept over the other.

    You say:

    "Are you for civilization or barbarism? Civilization provides for the common care of the people. Barbarism leaves each on his own.

    Civilization stands for ObamaCare, rather than each providing for themselves, on their own."


    So, am I to conclude from your interpretation that civilization equals Socialism? And am I to conclude that Individualism equals barbarism?

    I could go over the othe remarks of Gilder's that you have disparaged and I will if you want me to, otherwise I think that my response has made my point.

    Rat, you are better than this. I know what you have against Gilder but that should be a completely separate argument.

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  15. Unbeelievable

    China Auto Sales Rise 70% in July

    A year, or two, of this, and something's gotta give. There ain't that much oil.

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  16. Cut to the chase, Vikor!
    Rat's Full of Shit!

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  17. Example:

    Are you for Life or Death?

    Without proper longterm care, the uninsured die. Obviously those senior US residents that choose life, choose MediCare.
    That is Government Care = ObamaCare for Seniors, which for those that choose life, would want to supply to US all.
    ---
    IOW:
    Non-Union CITIZEN units paying for healthcare for union "workers" and their spawn, illegals, nere do wells, drug addicts, and butt fuckers is a GOOD thing.

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  18. I was talking about that particular China Syndrome 2 decades ago, Rufus.
    Nobody was interested.
    Many still in complete denial.

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  19. Well, they'll be interested pretty soon, Doug. Give it about two years.

    Then, take a Victory Lap.

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  20. Taxpayers, doug, more so than citizens. The are legal taxpayers and illegal taxpayers. Those that pay into the system illegally benefit those that recieve payments from th Feds.

    I do not think it quarrelsome, viktor, using your definitions:

    An advanced state of human society, in which a high level of culture, science, industry, and government has been reached.

    Opposing ... A barbarous or uncivilized state or condition

    High levels, compared to what one would ask? The others of the era, or those of the past?

    Culture being Mozart, or Marilyn Manson?
    Science, how does the aborting 45 million fetuses relect on medical science? So yes, there is a high level of science.
    But an additional 45 million of US, that were not aborted, have no access to scientific longterm medical remedies, which could be easily made available to them.
    But for prioritization of Governmental Goals.
    Those exemplify two barbarous conditions.

    Industry, that is an interesting measure of civilization. The heavier the industrial footprint, the more civilized the society?

    Puts portions of China well beyond civilized, along with Detroit. Though there could be a question of whether post Industrial society is still civilized, does society revert to barbarity when the factories close?

    The Government of Barack Obama exemplifies civilization?

    Or barbarity?

    If there is no middle ground.

    Those are the options that Mr Gilder presents us with.

    I'd say there are many shades of gray even within the definitions you provide, viktor.

    When applied to our culture and society. Where the civilized and the barbarous exist side by side, within the the same institutions of culture, science, industry and government.

    But any society that leaves 45 million of its' residents outside the longterm care of the medical system is barbaric, according to your definitions.

    It is culturally reprehensible.

    Other than that he was a speechwriter for Reagan, I have no knowledge of George Gilder, his life or ambitions.

    You brought him to the party. Along with any percieved predispositions that you may have about him.

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  21. And no, viktor, I would not say that socialism equals civilization, but the "higher" the form of Government, the more restrictive or regularatory and to your thinking, CIVILIZED, it becomes.

    Or is there a "high" form of government that is not restrictive and available for examination?

    I know of none, but perhaps I am not fully informed.

    Mr Gilder builds ideological strawmen of civilization then claims the 'other' are barbarians.

    The obvious man that was both barbarous and an agent of civilization, Genghis Khan of Mongolia and later ... China.

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  22. Rufus, it will force the mpg standards beyond government mandates.

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  23. Abortion, viktor, exemplifies US civilization, the coming together of the culture of promiscuity, the preeminnent industrial medical science institutions in all the world and a Government that sanctions infanticide.
    45 million killed to date.

    If that is what high culture, science, industry and government bring to society, I'll be barbaric, thank you very much.

    If you wish to stand amongst that carnage and claim US civilized, you certainly may, others do.

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  24. If one were to take the Roman Catholic position, then we'd have to factor in the pregnencies prevented by contraceptives, as a form of infanticide, as well.
    If I understand the Pope's position correctly. If I am in error, let me know, please.

    I would not take what I believe to be the Catholic position, but I can understand it's moral and civilized groundings.

    But that religous concept of civilized behaviour is contra-cultural, anti-industrial, retro-scientific, and trans-Governmental.

    Or is religion barbarous?

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  25. "Rat's Full of Shit!"

    That's part of it, anyway.

    Time better spent surfing erotic literature. You'd be surprised how much is out there, some of it quite good.

    Try it and see if you don't discover an improvement. One hardly need even think about it: Rat commentary vs. a good, dirty, and invariably inspiring shag.

    I'm for the shag.

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  26. I could start posting random passages if you have any doubt.

    Let me know.

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  27. Is market making in human body parts civilized or barbaric?

    I could make either case, without much difficulty. Easier though to argue it is civilized behaviour, than barbaric.

    As it is a manifestation of high science, industry and government regulations that socialize the availability of organs.

    Is a free market civilized or barbaric?

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  28. Yeah, Deuce, the CAFE standards will be a moot point.

    Let's just hope it doesn't put the lower quintiles "on foot."

    That $60.00/day "take home" doesn't look too sporty when it costs you $30.00 to drive back and forth from work.

    Have you ever noticed how the upper quintiles "commute," while the lower quintiles drive "back and forth?"

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  29. The "Old Man" out of town, again, Toots?

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  30. Drinkin that Wine; watchin them "shag" films . . . .

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  31. Rat, wondered when someone would get around to Ol' "Genghis."

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  32. The Chinese have been dealing with high fuel costs, forever.

    Look to their solutions
    for economic commuting and then, for longer distance or the "car pool" they have a new '1938' BMW w/sidecar.

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  33. You gotta admit, rufus, ol' Temüjin was a man of all seasons.

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  34. The dealer down the street sells the 150cc type bike for $1,300, retail. 72mpg.

    They have a 250cc for a few hundred more. They tell me the 250cc is freeway capable. It still has the scooter floor boards.

    Figure a 350 to 450cc single or twin could power a scooter/sidecare combination.

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  35. Yep,

    Ol' Jenjis was downright, "civilized" as long as you were on his "Good" side (ie behind him, not in front of him.)

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  36. I just got one question about the scooters - How do you keep the damned things from getting stolen?

    I can't believe you could hang onto one for a month around Memphis.

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  37. The word itself, viktor, barbarian is based upon the Latin, for non-Latin speakers.

    If one could not speak Latin, proof positive of barbarity.
    To speak Latin equated to being civilized, or at least civil.

    Now Latin lives on in the Churches, Monestaries and Convents of the Church of Rome. This is beyond dispute.

    The lingusitic standard, has it changed?
    Does barbarian still refer to those that are uncivilized, that cannot speak Latin?

    Or did the language of civilization become barbaric?

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  38. Stolen? Yet to figure that out.
    Can easily pick it up and put it in a truck. A stout fellow, by himself.

    Guard shacks, perhaps?

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  39. Rat

    I said:

    "The reality of existence may be that there are many shades of gray. That is to say: no one is completely civilized and no one is completly barbaric."

    Logically extended, this comment means that people are, in varying degrees, an amalgam of civilized traits and barbaric traits. But this observation is about particular people not about the concept.

    The concept of excellence would be included within the concept of civilization. Within the concept of excellence would be "moral excellence." If you wish to say that civilization is found wanting in this respect, and in your examples you have, in fact, said this, then you and I are in agreement.

    However, if you are disputing the concept of "civilization" as an invalid concept just because, within civilization, there moral and logical absurdities, then this where you and I part company.

    By your very pointed criticisms of civilization you are, again in fact, arguing for a better set of vaues so as to improve civilisation. In doing this, your argument has become what philosophers call a reductio ad absurdum. You are not the first debater to fall into this trap.

    I have won this round, Rat and I'm sure that as a reasonable man, you will agree.

    Maybe you'll win the next debate (but don't count on it) :-))

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  40. Sure viktor, if you are the judge of a contest, you sure can win.

    But I am not participating in a contest, perhaps you think you are.

    What I argued, was there is not a binary choice, as Mr Gilder told us there was.

    To that concept you seem to agree.

    Marginalizing Mr Gilder's remarks on the devisive nature of the binary choices available to us.

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  41. C'mon Rat. I'm just trying to lighten the debate.

    BTW, on the presumption that you had a beef with Gilder:

    I will withdraw that comment if you can tell me that you were not aware of this:

    Gilder Throws Down a Gauntlet

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  42. Googled his name when you used it.
    Do it yourself, see what you see.

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  43. I had not even done the RCP scan today. viktor.

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  44. He was applying his bombast to Israel? As you can plainly see from my comments, viktor, I was talking about US. Perhaps Israel is the cradle of modern civilization, I doubt it though, they do not speak Latin, there.

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  45. It was a Yahoo seach, I deleated the google desktop

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  46. But if we're traveling to Israel,

    Israel recalls diplomat who warned about US ties

    "Boston consul general Nadav Tamir has been recalled for consultations so he can clarify how one of his memos appeared in the media," foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

    On Thursday, the privately-owned Channel 10 television reported that Tamir had warned the ministry that the refusal of Netanyahu's right-leaning government to heed US requests to freeze settlement activity in the occupied West Bank was harming Israel's most important diplomatic relationship.

    "The way in which we are conducting the relationship with the US government is causing Israel strategic damage," he was quoted as warning in the memo.

    "While the administration is trying to calm things down, it is Israel that keeps on heating up the rhetoric," he added.

    The row over Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem, has brought the Jewish state's relations with its key ally to their lowest ebb in years.

    Tamir warned that it was not just the US government that risked being alienated by Netanyahu's hardline stance but also many Jewish Americans
    .

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  47. Insiders say Atty. Gen. Eric Holder is close to naming a prosecutor to look into reports of excessive waterboarding and other unauthorized methods. Convictions could be hard to get.

    By Greg Miller and Josh Meyer
    August 9, 2009

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  48. Rat:

    Then I withdraw my comment with sincere apologies.

    Viktor

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  49. It is past the bewitching hour somewhere.

    I seem to recall that someone suggested we were going to get regaled with Tails from the Dark Side - oops, Tales from the Dark Side - if we doubted.

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  50. Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, has been deeply involved in investigating the birthers' claims, and says the "Certification of Live Birth" that Obama has produced is irrefutable proof that the president was born when and where he says he was.

    And he said, "I have seen absolutely nothing that proves Obama was born anywhere but Hawaii."

    He does fault Obama's media organization for posting a poor copy of the Certification of Live Birth on the candidate's Web site, giving ammunition to those who challenge his right to be president.


    Refuse to Die

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  51. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  52. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  53. Thirty-two Mexican police officers would travel to Canada for three weeks’ training in the fall, while eight Spanish-speaking Royal Canadian Mounted Police instructors were currently in Mexico providing basic training to Mexican Federal Police recruits.

    Canada would also provide training for 300 mid-level officers, the statement added.

    With killings in suspected drug attacks in Mexico approaching 10,000 since the start of 2008, Mexican President Felipe Calderon was expected to seek more support for his controversial military crackdown on the country’s warring drug gangs during the two-day summit also attend by US President Barack Obama.


    $15 Mil Program

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  54. "barbaric" is of ancient Greek origin...borrowed by Romans..."bar bar" equivalent to modern "blah blah"...indicative of primitive speech...hence, uncivilized...

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  55. It's almost half past five, and dark, and cold somewhere.

    Some of us had an early bedtime.

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  56. Once, a society's poetry was considered the highest expression of its level of civilization.

    Poetry is possible only when a society has reached the level of development where words of utility give way to the language of the soul.

    We and the ancients share the habit of giving our "poetry" musical accompaniment. What does our music say of the state of our soul?

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  57. What does our music say of the state of our soul?

    Mon Aug 10, 07:00:00 AM EDT

    Yours says that you like way too much melodrama way too early in the morning. Just sayin'.

    Try this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCB7cxv-Ey8

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  58. Or this:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GssqwTWIXNo

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  59. Hmm...autobiographical?

    Your point is taken, for all the good that will do. Recall: I am Jewish; angst R us ;-)

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  60. "Hmm...autobiographical?"

    No. I just prefer it to the actual Roxy video which is a little too...dated. And it WAS an excellent movie.

    Yeah, the Jewish thing. Gotcha.

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  61. trish,

    Re: Jewish thing

    For some,it is the only thing.

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  62. Well, I'm not sure how to read that, but I'll take you at your word.

    There are probably fifty Jews living on my street and in the immediate vicinity (the synagogue, you know) and they look like they could USE some industrial strength Streisand. As opposed to the funeral dirges they give every indication of preferring. There are Jews, and then there are Jews. Apparently.

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  63. trish,

    There are those who believe our faith should express joy and others who would have it as doleful as possible.

    At the moment, the decendants of those Jews who brought us flamenco, among other things, are not in the ascendant. We are working on that ;-)

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