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, March 01, 2014

Israel’s huge denial bubble

 

“We must impose sanctions,” 

“If the spineless Obama will not do it, we must do it – even unilaterally”





MP for Gorton, Manchester, Sir Gerald Kaufman rose to speak in a debate on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Here is what he said word for word so that you get the full flavour: 

I once led a delegation of 60 parliamentarians from 13 European parliaments to Gaza. I could no longer do that today because Gaza is practically inaccessible. The Israelis try to lay the responsibility on the Egyptians, but although the Egyptians’ closing of the tunnels has caused great hardship, it is the Israelis who have imposed the blockade and are the occupying power. 

The culpability of the Israelis was demonstrated in the report to the UN by Richard Goldstone following Operation Cast Lead. After his report, he was harassed by Jewish organizations. At the end of a meeting I had with him in New York, his wife said to me, “It is good to meet another self-hating Jew.”
 

Again and again, Israel seeks to justify the vile injustices that it imposes on the people of Gaza and the West Bank on the grounds of the holocaust. Last week, we commemorated the holocaust; 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza are being penalized with that as the justification. That is unacceptable.


 

"Private property was the original source of freedom.  

It still is its main bulwark."  - Walter Lippmann

 

Settlers bulldoze Palestinian lands near Nablus to expand outpost



NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli settlers on Thursday bulldozed private Palestinian lands near the northern West Bank village of Jalud south of Nablus in order to expand an illegal settlement outpost, a Palestinian Authority official said.


Ghassan Daghlas, a PA official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that settlers from the Shvut Rachel outpost had decided to expand their illegal settlement at the expense of nearby private Palestinian landowners.

The fields that were leveled belong to Ahmad Ibrahim Hajj Muhammad, he added.

Daghlas said that the Israeli government had granted the settlers construction licenses.

Jalud is located directly beside a number of notoriously violent Jewish outposts and settlements, and hundreds of acres of its agricultural lands have been confiscated by Israeli authorities for their construction.

Settlers regularly attack the village, burning cars and uprooting olive trees, 

and in January locals captured a group of marauding settler youth before turning them over to security forces.

In 2013, there were 399 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, 

according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

 



By Jonathan Cook in Nazareth


The 24-hour visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Israel this week came as relations between the two countries hit rock bottom. According to a report in Der Spiegel magazine last week, Merkel and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have been drawn into shouting matches when discussing by phone the faltering peace process.



Despite their smiles to the cameras during the visit, tension behind the scenes has been heightened by a diplomatic bust-up earlier this month when Martin Schulz, the president of the European parliament and himself German, gave a speech to the Israeli parliament.

In unprecedented scenes, a group of Israeli legislators heckled Schulz, calling him a “liar”, and then staged a walk-out, led by the Economics Minister Naftali Bennett. Rather than apologising, Netanyahu intervened to lambast the European leader for being misinformed.

Schulz, who, like Merkel, is considered a close friend of Israel, used his speech vehemently to oppose growing calls in Europe for a boycott of Israel. So how did he trigger such opprobrium?

Denying the truth
Schulz’s main offence was posing a question: was it true, as he had heard in meetings in the West Bank, that Israelis have access to four times more water than Palestinians? He further upset legislators by gently suggesting that Israel’s blockade of Gaza was preventing economic growth there.

Neither statement should have been in the least controversial. Figures from independent bodies such as the World Bank show Israel, which controls the region’s water supplies, allocates per capita about 4.4 times more water to its population than the Palestinians.


 Equally, it would be hard to imagine that years of denying goods and materials to Gaza, and blocking exports, have not ravaged its economy. The unemployment rate, for example, has increased 6 per cent, to 38.5 per cent, following Israel’s recent decision to prevent the transfer of construction materials to Gaza’s private sector.

 
But Israelis rarely hear such facts, either from their politicians or media. And few are willing to listen when a rare voice like Schulz’s intervenes.
Israelis have grown content living in a large bubble of denial.

Netantahu and his ministers are making every effort to reinforce that bubble, just as they have tried to shield Israelis from the fact that they live in the Middle East, not Europe, by building walls on every side – both physical and bureacratic – to exclude Palestinians, Arab neighbours, foreign workers and asylum seekers.

Persecuting truth tellers
Inside Israel, the government is seeking to silence the few critical voices left. The intimidation was starkly on display last week as the Supreme Court considered the constitutionality of the recent “boycott law”, which threatens to bankrupt anyone calling for a boycott of either Israel or the settlements.

Tellingly, a lawyer for the government defended its position by arguing that Israel could not afford freedom of expression of the kind enjoyed by countries like the US.


 Illustrating the point, uproar greeted the news last month that a civics teacher had responded negatively when asked by pupils whether he thought Israel’s army the most moral in the world. A campaign to sack him has been led by government ministers and his principal, who stated: “There are sacred cows I won’t allow to be slaughtered.”

Similarly, last week it emerged that a Palestinian from East Jerusalem had been interrogated by police for incitement after noting on Facebook that his city was “under occupation”.

Browbeating critics

Outside Israel, Netanyahu is indulging in more familiar tactics to browbeat critics. Tapping European sensitivities, he accused those who support a boycott of being “classical anti-Semites in modern garb”. Netanyahu justified the allegation, as he has before, on the grounds that Israel is being singled it out.


 It looks that way to Israelis only because they have singularly insulated themselves from reality.
Western critics focus on Israel because, unlike countries such as North Korea or Iran, it has managed to avoid any penalties despite riding roughshod over international norms for decades.

Iran, which is only suspected of secretly developing nuclear weapons, has been enduring years of savage sanctions. Israel, which has hidden its large stockpile of nuclear warheads from international scrutiny since the late 1960s, has enjoyed endless diplomatic cover.

  
Contrary to Netanyahu’s claim, lots of countries around the world have been singled out for sanctions by the United States and Europe – whether diplomatic, financial or, in the case of Iraq, Libya and Syria, military.
But the antipathy towards Israel has deeper roots still. Israel has not only evaded accountability, it has been handsomely rewarded by the US and Europe for flouting international conventions in its treatment of the Palestinians.


The self-styled global policemen have encouraged Israel’s law-breaking by consistently ignoring its transgressions and continuing with massive aid handouts and preferential trade deals. In Germany’s case, one of the most significant benefits has been its decision to supply Israel with a fleet of Dolphin submarines, which allow Israel to transport its rogue nuclear arsenal around the high seas.

Far from judging Israel unfairly, Schulz, Merkel and most other Western leaders regularly indulge in special pleading on its behalf. They know about Israel’s ugly occupation but shy away from exercising their powers to help end it.

The reason why popular criticism of Israel is currently galvanizing around the boycott movement – what Netanyahu grandly calls “delegitimization” – is that it offers a way for ordinary Americans and Europeans to distance themselves from their governments’ own complicity in Israel’s crimes.



If Netanyahu has refused to listen to his external critics, Western governments have been no less at fault in growing impervious to the groundswell of sentiment at home that expects Israel to be forced to take account of international law.


Both Merkel’s diplomatic niceties and her shouting matches have proven utterly ineffective. It is time for her and her Western colleagues to stop talking and to start taking action against Israel.


Farmer Bob finds this to be an 

INTERESTING SUBJECT!

Making more comments here, than anywhere.

More Israeli  Apartheid Threads Will Be Coming His Way

It is what he wants to discuss!


89 comments:

  1. 11 for 13 after today's casino action, Ladies and Gentlemen minus one gentleman.

    I think I'm onto something. Someone that knows odds and statistics, I'd love to know the odds of what is happening.

    The secret seems to be to get to the casino as soon after the zapping as possible. The experiment shall continue next week.

    Remember, the Indian casino odds are vastly against the gambler, much worse than Las Vegas, which is almost fair by comparison.

    Jackrat is back to his favorite pass time. I wish he had stuck with his theory of the Napoleonic Code's failures in Venezuela.

    With Jackrat aroiund, this blog sucks. Though it moments of high comedy, like the last mentioned above.



    There is no reason to counter, he's full of crap, and this place has been through it at least a hundred times or more. The number of people, good ones all, who have been driven away from here because of Jackrat I now count numbering at least five.

    It's sad.

    tata till piss time......

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm still waiting for the Feds to prosecute Zimmerman, by the way.

    tateeta.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They still have his gun, it's evidence in the investigation.

      Must be that Holder is not as biased and prejudiced as you said he was.
      If he was, Zimmerman would be in Court.

      If Obama was as racist as you claim, Zimmerman would be dead.

      If the 'Blacks" were the threat you claim them to be, Zimmerman would be dead, already.

      But the 'Blacks' have not lived up to the fear mongering you have done, have they?

      heh heh, heh.

      You have fallen into another well laid trap, Farmer Bob.

      Farmer Fudd never could get Bugs Bunny.
      Farmer Bob never could get the Rat, either.

      Now the Rat is gone, and Farmer Bob is sick as a dog.
      All good things come to an end.

      Delete
    2. You put words in my mouth. What I said was that there was not any real evidence to proceed. Holder seems to understand that.

      "Bullying, outing, taunting and making false or malicious unsubstantiated charges against another member is not allowed." -- except when it comes to Jackrat.

      Delete
    3. Will The Management take action?

      Action is requested.

      Delete
  3. The Queen of Racist Israel -

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/miss-israel-is-ethiopian-immigrant/

    ReplyDelete
  4. Interfaith dialogue in Nigeria: Muslims torch three churches, murder three nuns
    Mar 01, 2014 02:03 am | Robert Spencer



    Iranian ayatollah: “Death to America is the first option on our table”
    Feb 28, 2014 06:55 pm | Robert Spencer



    Google warns that court order removing Muhammad video will create Hollywood chaos
    Feb 28, 2014 05:59 pm | Robert Spencer



    Syrian jihadis live-tweet amputation of a man’s hand
    Feb 28, 2014 05:37 pm | Robert Spencer



    Central African Republic: Leaflets calling for creation of Islamic state trigger uproar
    Feb 28, 2014 04:27 pm | Robert Spencer
    The Christian militias are called “anti-balaka.” A balaka is a machet used by Muslims to kill Christians.


    Pakistan: Taliban cows free newspaper into silence by murdering its employees
    Feb 28, 2014 04:12 pm | Robert Spencer



    UK jihad murderer handed blood-stained note full of Qur’an quotes to bystander
    Feb 28, 2014 02:51 pm | Robert Spencer


    UK: Muslim boys’ school bans women from applying for job as science teacher
    Feb 28, 2014 11:32 am | Robert Spencer



    Bahrain arrests four for insulting Muhammad’s companions on Instagram
    Feb 28, 2014 10:20 am | Robert Spencer

    Bangladesh: Muslims vandalize Hindu temple, threaten to bomb it unless Hindus convert to Islam or move to India

    Today at Jihad Watch:

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Saudi Arabia: The Middle East’s Real Apartheid State

    February 24, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 173 Comments


    Print This Post Print This Post
    356-saudiThere is a country in the Middle East where 10 percent of the population is denied equal rights because of their race, where black men are not allowed to hold many government positions, where black women are put on trial for witchcraft and where the custody of children is granted to the parent with the most “racially superior” bloodline.

    This Apartheid State is so enormously powerful that it controls American foreign policy in the Middle East even as its princes and princesses bring their slaves to the United Kingdom and the United States.



    That country is Saudi Arabia.

    Saudi Arabia abolished slavery in 1962 under pressure from President Kennedy, who accomplished what the Ottoman Empire and the League of Nations had not been able to, but that hasn’t stopped its citizens from selling castrated slaves on Facebook or its princes from beating their black slaves to death in posh London hotels.

    The Saudis had clung to their racist privileges longer than anyone else. When rumors reached Mecca that the Ottoman Empire might be considering the abolition of African slavery and equal rights for all, the chief of the Ulema of Mecca issued a fatwa declaring “the ban on slaves is contrary to Sharia (Islamic Law)… with such proposals the Turks have become infidels and it is lawful to make their children slaves.”

    But Saudi Arabia’s oil wealth eventually made slavery economically unnecessary. Early on, African slaves worked for foreign oil companies which paid their masters, but they were a poor fit for the oil economy. The Kingdom no longer needed agricultural slaves and pearl drivers; it needed trained technicians from the West and international travel made it cheaper to import Asian workers for household labor and construction than to maintain its old trade in slaves.

    The Saudis replaced the 450,000 slaves of the 1950s with 8.4 million guest workers. These workers are often treated like slaves, but they are not property and are therefore even more disposable than the slaves were. Exact numbers are hard to come by, but Nepal alone reported 265 worker deaths in Saudi Arabia in a single year.

    Human Rights Watch has described conditions for foreign workers in Saudi Arabia as resembling slavery.

    Meanwhile the three million Afro-Saudis are denied equal rights, prevented from serving as judges, security officials, diplomats, mayors and many other official positions. Afro-Saudi women are not allowed to appear on camera.

    “There is not one single black school principal in Saudi Arabia,” the Institute for Gulf Affairs, a Saudi human rights group, reported.



    Kafa’ah, equality in marriage, is used to establish that both sides are free from the “taint” of slave blood. The blood of Takruni, West African slaves, or Mawalid, slaves who gained their freedom by converting to Islam, is kept out of the Saudi master race through genealogical records that can be presented at need.

    Challenges to the Kafa’ah of a marriage occur when tribal members uncover African descent in the husband or the wife after the marriage has already occurred. The racially inferior party is ordered to present “proof of equality” in the form of family trees and witnesses. If the couple is judged unequal, the Saudi Gazette reported, “Children’s custody is usually given to the ‘racially superior’ parent.”

    These Saudi efforts at preventing their former slaves from intermarrying with them have only accelerated their incestuous inbreeding. In parts of Saudi Arabia, the percentage of marriages among blood relatives can go as high as 70%.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Saudi Arabia has the second highest rate of birth defects in the world, but a Saudi Sheikh blamed this phenomenon on female drivers, even though women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.

      Equality has always been a foreign concept to the Saudis whose tribal castes determine the right to rule. In Saudi Arabia everyone has their place, from the Afro-Saudi, to the non-Muslim guest worker to the Saudi woman.

      On the road to Mecca, a sign points one way for “Muslims” and another for “Non-Muslims.” Only Muslims are allowed into the holy cities of Islam. A Christian truck driver from Sri Lanka who wandered into Mecca was arrested and dispatched for trial to a Sharia court of Islamic law.

      Likewise, women are barred from many jobs, kept from driving and even electronically tracked to prevent them from leaving the country. Guest workers in Saudi Arabia are treated as slaves, their identity papers held by their employers, preventing them from leaving without permission.

      The guest workers however, if they survive the witchcraft accusations and sexual assaults, will escape back to Ethiopia, Sri Lanka or the Philippines with a fraction of the money that they were supposed to earn. The Afro-Saudis however have nowhere to return to. Saudi Arabia is the only home they know.

      The Arab slave trade was longer, crueler and far more enduring than anything Europeans and Americans are familiar with and left behind large numbers of Afro-Arabs across the Middle East and Afro-Turks in Turkey. While African-Americans are prominently represented in American life, Afro-Arabs and Afro-Turks suffer from an inferior status which keeps them away from political power and out of public view.

      Delete
    2. American soldiers in Basra were surprised to discover large numbers of Afro-Iraqis. The hundreds of thousands of Afro-Iraqis are a legacy of the Zanj slave rebellion when 500,000 African slaves rose against their Arab masters. The Afro-Iraqis are free, but relentlessly discriminated against. In Gaza, 10,000 Afro-Arabs face daily discrimination. But it is the Afro-Saudis who are the Middle East’s best kept secret.

      Nawal Al-Hawsawi was dubbed the Rosa Parks of Saudi Arabia when she took three women to court who insultingly called her “Abd” or slave. Nawal dropped the court case after she received an apology, but the taunt of “slave” is one that Afro-Saudis have to live with daily in Saudi Arabia.

      “The monarchy’s religious tradition still views blacks as slaves,” Ali Al-Ahmed, the Director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, wrote in Foreign Policy Magazine.

      The Institute blames Deputy Saudi Foreign Minister Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah, the son of the Saudi king, for being the architect of the Saudi apartheid state, but Saudi apartheid predates any one man.

      Saudi slavery was intertwined with Islam, receiving sanction from the Koran and the Hadiths while relying on the Saudi role as the guardians of Mecca and Medina to lure African Muslims into slavery. African Muslims who made the pilgrimage to Mecca were defrauded and forced to sell their children into slavery to afford the return trip home. Slave traders lured African Muslims from Sudan, Mali and Burkina Faso by promising to take them to the holy places of Islam and teach them to read the Koran in Arabic.

      Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan, a leading authority on Islam in Saudi Arabia, bluntly stated, “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long there is Islam.” The linkage between slavery, Jihad and Islam dates back to Mohammed whose followers were compensated with human property.

      In The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa, John Alembillah Azumah writes that, “In pre-Islamic Arabia blacks were held in high esteem and did marry Arab women … the discrimination on account of the colour of their skin is a development within the Islamic period.”

      Racism was a necessary prerequisite to the expansion of Islam through Jihad. The land that is today known as Saudi Arabia was at the center of those conquests, growing rich in slaves and loot. Today it is once again at the center of the new Jihad, its every atrocity justified by its role in the holy wars of Islam.

      Delete
  6. Israeli “Racism”
    (Photo: Oren Nahshon)
    (Photo: Oren Nahshon)
    From Merriam-Webster:
    “RACISM – noun – a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.”
    Yesterday, as we reported in this morning’s Stand for Israel Daily Dispatch, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat — the lead negotiator for the P.A. in the ongoing talks with Israel — called on the international community to deal harshly with the “racist” Jewish state. It’s a common epithet used by the Palestinians and their sympathizers and apologists around the world, not because they think it’s true (for the most part), but in the cynical understanding that, in contemporary Western society, there is almost no worse label.
    Faithful readers of Stand For Israel know better, of course. They know that Israel is a multi-ethnic society. They know that this year’s Miss Israel beauty pageant winner is an Israeli woman of Ethiopian descent. They know that some 10% of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, is made up of Israeli Arabs, and that Muslims living in Israel enjoy the same civil liberties as Israeli Jews and Christians.
    In order for Israel — or any other country — to be a “racist” country, there would need to be racist policies in place. Not just policies that treat different groups differently, but policies that treat different groups differently out of the above-defined belief system. A racist policy would be one that discriminates against a group of people based upon a belief that that group is inferior. Policies that seek to control the demonstrated violent behavior of a subset of a population are not racist. They are common sense.
    Israel’s enemies who apply that term to her don’t care whether or not she is “racist,” just as those who lie about Israel’s activities in the West Bank and Gaza don’t care if the accusations are true. Their goal is to repeat the lie often enough that it becomes associated in the public consciousness with the Jewish state. They want “Israel” and “racism” to become synonymous.
    If Western countries and their leaders really care about racism, they should resist misapplication of the term. If Palestinian leaders care about peace, they should spend less time trying to organize international condemnation of Israel and more time trying to organize the civic institutions needed to support the country they claim to want to build.
    But we’re not holding our breath.


    Read more: http://www.blog.standforisrael.org/articles/israeli-racism#ixzz2uhkhW1Kf
    Follow us: @StandForIsrael on Twitter | StandforIsrael on Facebook

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


    Yemenite Jews en route from Aden to Israel, during the Magic Carpet operation (1949–1950)
    Jewish exodus
    from Arab countries
    1948–1972
    Yemenites go to Aden.jpg
    Main articles
    Arab–Israeli conflict
    Operation Magic Carpet (Yemen)
    Operation Ezra and Nehemiah
    Operation Yachin
    Expulsion of Egyptian Jews
    Immigrant camps • Ma'abarot
    Resolution 194
    Background
    Zionism
    Palestinian nationalism
    Nazis and the Arab world
    The Holocaust in Italian Libya
    Farhud • Tripoli (1945)
    Egypt (1945)
    Key events
    1948 Palestine war
    Aleppo (Syria) • Aden
    Oujda and Jerada (Morocco)
    Tripoli (Libya)
    Cairo (Egypt) • Baghdad (Iraq)
    Lavon Affair • Suez Crisis
    Algerian War • Six-Day War
    Arbitration
    WOJAC • JIMENA
    The David Project
    Resettlement
    Aliyah • Law of Return
    Development towns
    North African Jewry in France
    Related topics
    Jewish history • Jewish diaspora
    Exodus of Iran's Jews
    History under Muslim rule
    Mizrahi Jews • Maghrebi Jews
    Musta'arabi Jews
    v t e
    The Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries or Jewish exodus from Arab countries (Arabic: هجرة اليهود من الدول العربية والإسلامية‎ hijrat al-yahūd min ad-duwal al-ʻArabīyah wal-Islāmīyah) was the departure, flight,[1] migration and expulsion of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Muslim countries, mainly from 1948 until the early 1970s.
    Though Jewish migration from Middle Eastern and North African communities began in the late 19th century and Jews began leaving some Arab countries in the 1930s and early 1940s, it did not happen on a large scale until after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Although estimates vary, about 800,000 Jews lived in Arab countries prior to the creation of Israel in 1948, of which just under two-thirds lived in the colonial-controlled Maghreb region, 15-20% in the Kingdom of Iraq, approximately 10% in the Kingdom of Egypt and approximately 7% in the Kingdom of Yemen. A further 200,000 lived in Pahlavi Iran and the Republic of Turkey. Today around 6,500 Jews live in Arab countries and around 30,000 in Iran and Turkey.[citation needed]

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From the onset of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War until the early 1970s, 800,000–1,000,000 Jews left, fled, or were expelled from their homes in Arab countries. Some place the emigration peak to a slightly earlier time window of 1944 to 1964, when some 700,000 Jews moved to Israel from Arab countries and were dispossessed of nearly their entire property.[2] 260,000 Jews from Arab countries had immigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1951 and amounted for 56% of the total immigration to the newly founded State of Israel.[3] 600,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim countries had reached Israel by 1972.[4][5][6] By the Yom Kippur War of 1973, most of the Jewish communities throughout the Arab World, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, were practically non-existent.
      m_Arab_and_Muslim_countriThe reasons for the exodus included push factors, such as persecution, antisemitism, political instability, poverty and expulsion; together with pull factors, such as the desire to fulfill Zionist yearnings or find a better economic status and secured home in Europe or the Americas.[1] The history of the exodus is politicized, given its proposed relevance to a final settlement Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13] When presenting the history, those who view the Jewish exodus as equivalent to the 1948 Palestinian exodus, such as the Israeli government and NGOs such as JJAC and JIMENA, emphasize "push factors", such as cases of anti-Jewish violence and forced expulsions,[7] and refer to those affected as "refugees".[7] Those who argue that the exodus does not equate to the Palestinian exodus emphasize "pull factors", such as the actions of local Zionist agents who encouraged Zionist ideology,[9] highlight good relations between the Jewish communities and their country's governments,[11] emphasize the impact of other push factors such as the decolonization in the Maghreb and the Suez War and Lavon Affair in Egypt,[11] and argue that many or all of those who left were not refugees.[7][9]
      Following the United Nations vote in favor of partitioning Palestine, Anti-Jewish demonstrations in cities such as Aden and Aleppo were particularly violent[14] which prompted a sharp increase in Jewish exodus. Soon after the 1947 Aleppo pogrom half the city's Jewish population had left.[15] In 1948, Anti-Jewish demonstrations which followed the 1948 Arab-Israeli War resulted in Jewish deaths in the Moroccan city of Oujda and the Libyan city of Tripoli.[14] At the same time, independent Arab countries began to encourage Jewish emigration to Israel.[16][17][18] From 1948 to 1949, the Israeli government secretly airlifted 50,000 Jews from Yemen and from 1950 to 1952, 130,000 Jews were airlifted from Iraq. From 1949 to 1951, 30,000 Jews fled Libya to Israel. In these cases over 90% of the Jewish population opted to leave, despite the necessity of leaving their property behind.[19] Most Libyan Jews fled to Israel by 1951, while the citizenship of the rest was revoked in 1961, and the community remnants were finally evacuated to Italy following the Six Day War; almost all of Yemeni and Adeni Jews, were evacuated during 1949–1950 in fear of their security; Iraqi and Kurdish Jews were encouraged to leave in 1950 by the Iraqi Government, which had eventually ordered in 1951 "the expulsion of Jews who refused to sign a statement of anti-Zionism".[20]

      Delete
    2. The Jews of Egypt began fleeing the country in 1948,[21] and most of the remaining, some 21,000, were expelled in 1956;[22] Algerian Jews were deprived of their citizenship in 1962 and as a result immediately abandoned the country for France and Israel; Moroccan Jews began leaving for Israel as a result of the 1948 pogroms, with most of the community leaving in 1960s; Lebanon was the only Arab country to see a temporary increase in its Jewish population after 1948, which was due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries.[23] However, by mid-1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon also dwindled due to hostilities of the Lebanese Civil War. Many Jews were required to sell, abandon, or smuggle their property out of the countries they were fleeing.[24][25][26] By 2002 Jews from Arab countries and their descendants constituted almost half of Israel's population.[6] In the aftermath of the exodus wave from Arab League states, an additional mass-migration of Iranian Jews peaked following the 1979 Islamic Revolution and during the Iran–Iraq War, when around 80% of Iranian Jews left the war-torn country for US and Israel.[citation needed] Through the 20th century, Turkish Jewry had mostly emigrated due to economic reasons and Zionist aspirations, but since the 1990s increasing terrorist attacks against Jews caused security concerns, with the result that many Jews left for Israel.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_froes

      Delete
  8. News and Views from Jews Down Under
    An online magazine for Australian Jews
    Israel: The First Modern Indigenous State
    Posted on 10/01/2014 by Michael Lumish 14

    I have been arguing for some time that we need to place the long Arab war against the Jews of the Middle East within the modern western civil rights paradigm.
    If the west, or at least the western-left, honors the struggle among people of color for national liberation, or if they support the struggle among women for full and equal rights throughout the world, or if they believe that Gay people should be afforded equality before the law, surely they must accept that the Jewish people also deserve rights to self-determination and self-defense against our persecutors.
    Over at Israelycool, Ryan Bellerose, a Native-American Canadian activist has a few words on the matter:
    The actual working definition of “indigenous people,” (not the Wikipedia version, nor Merriam Webster, both more suited to plants and animals) for purposes of this essay is that developed by aforementioned anthropologist José R. Martínez-Cobo. With this as my foundation, I will detail why Jews are indigenous to Israel, and why Palestinians are not.
    Martinez-Cobo’s research suggests that indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.
    The Jews of the Middle East are a persecuted indigenous minority.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are two reasons why they are considered not to be so by most in the west. The first reason has to do with the type of unacknowledged racism that makes up “progressive” political culture. The second has to do with the misunderstanding between indigenous rights and what Bellerose calls “rights of longstanding presence.” The Jewish people are the only people on the planet who can claim indigenous rights within the Land of Israel. The Arabs, as the conquerors of the region thousands of years after the establishment of Israel as the Jewish national home, are not.
      Most westerners and Arabs tend to look upon Israelis as “white” and, needless to say, white people are indigenous to Europe, thus, as deceased White House correspondent Helen Thomas would agree, they should return to Poland or Germany or, even, the United States. Of course, by seeing Israel as a white European implant upon Arab soil, both Arabs and western progressives implicitly deny the fact that ancestors of about half of the Israelis never left the Middle East to begin with. Ashkenazi Jews represent the traditional leadership of Israeli society, but non-European Mizrahi Jews are an exceedingly important part of that society and, yet, their presence is ignored by western progressives who claim to stand for indigenous rights. The truth, of course, is that both Ashkenazi and Mizrahi are indigenous to the land of Israel, whereas Arabs, “Palestinian” or otherwise, are not.
      Arabs are indigenous to Saudi Arabia.
      We are denied indigenous status by white western progressives because progressivism, as a political movement, is the single most racist political movement in the west, today, outside of political Islam. This makes it convenient for the Arab conquerors of the Jewish people to claim indigenous status although they only truly have “rights of longstanding presence.”
      The real difference, of course, between the indigenous Jews of the Middle East and other conquered indigenous people, such as Bellerose’s people, is that the Jews of the Middle East were the first of all indigenous peoples to take back their homeland. Israel is a miracle for any number of reasons. It not only survived the efforts of the vast hostile Arab-Muslim majority to destroy it in its cradle, it has thrived despite such malicious ongoing efforts. From any perspective – scientific, economic, or social – Israel transformed itself into a successful European-style democracy and did so under the kind of intense hostile circumstances that no western European country has had to endure since the end of World War II.
      Bellerose concludes:
      If conquerors can become indigenous, then the white Europeans who came to my indigenous lands in North America could now claim to be indigenous. The white Europeans who went to Australia and New Zealand could now claim to be indigenous. If we, even once, allow that argument to be made, indigenous rights are suddenly devalued and meaningless. This is somewhat peculiar, as those who are arguing for Palestinian “indigenous rights” are usually those who have little grasp of the history, and no understanding of the truth behind indigenous rights.
      The Jewish claim to Jewish land is the claim of a persecuted indigenous people and is, thus, grounded within the kind of liberal ideology, prevalent in the west throughout the twentieth-century, that allegedly stands up for the rights of indigenous people all over the world.

      Delete
    2. Just as black people struggled for their rights, and basic human dignity, during the American Civil Rights Movement, so the Jews continue to struggle for our rights and basic human dignity within our 3,500 year old national home. Just as native peoples everywhere seek to free themselves from the negative influence of hostile conquering populations, so the Jews of the Middle East seek to free themselves from the never-ending hostility of their former masters in that part of the world.
      The so-called “Palestinian national movement” is not a national movement of an indigenous people. It is a national movement designed specifically to overthrow the indigenous people and replace that people with the very people who conquered them and held them in something akin to servitude (dhimmitude) for thirteen long centuries.
      Like indigenous peoples throughout the world, the Jewish people, too, are worthy of self-determination and self-defense.
      .
      Michael Lumish is the editor of Israel Thrives.

      Delete
  9. "What's the matter, Nissim?"

    "Nothing. What the children say."

    "You mean just now, shouting?"

    "Yes. They say: 'Where you going, bastard? I spit on you.'"

    What for, I thought, what for, and will it never stop?

    "Do you hate the Arabs, Nissim?"

    "No. Of course no."

    "Why not?"

    "What is the good of hate?"

    What indeed? Arabs gorge on hate, they roll in it, they breathe it. Jews top the hate list, but any foreigners are hateful enough. Arabs also hate each other, separately and, en masse. Their politicians change the direction of their hate as they would change their shirts. Their press is vulgarly base with hate-filled cartoons; their reporting describes whatever hate is now uppermost and convenient. Their radio is a long scream of hate, a call to hate. They teach their children hate in school. They must love the taste of hate; it is their daily bread. And what good has it done them?


    Martha Gellhorn

    "The Arabs of Palestine"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway in pictures -

      https://www.google.com/search?q=Martha+Gellhorn+and+Ernest+Hemingway+-+picuters&rlz=1C1KMZA_enUS575US576&espv=210&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&imgil=bhXaijH2nxsbcM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcQwtCfmvTFS35oFEKZ1mzf4bKLX7NhiE3n9Z0-OxcShzNv44-m6%253B460%253B276%253ByzWHdnCbHnMjqM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.theguardian.com%25252Ffilm%25252F2009%25252Ffeb%25252F03%25252Fernest-hemingway-film&source=iu&usg=__VfCsYonoN9dOvvF73Z-ia6XGnyg%3D&sa=X&ei=f7kRU7G6JKbO2wXK54CoAw&ved=0CDAQ9QEwAQ&biw=1517&bih=741&dpr=0.9#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=eI5YwjXV0tXGTM%253A%3Bjlmb7ALcJHcyHM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.jfklibrary.org%252F~%252Fmedia%252Fassets%252FAudiovisual%252FStill%252520Photographs%252FErnest%252520Hemingway%252520Photograph%252520Collection%252FEH05582P.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.jfklibrary.org%252FAsset-Viewer%252FgeHR4YGqAEypgSLKQ2PDmQ.aspx%3B3000%3B2416

      Delete
    2. Tap right click for more pics.

      Delete
  10. One thing about prostate cancer.......it gets you up in the middle of the night, and I don't mean that way.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eventually, we ALL end up prostrate.

      Delete
    2. In some polite societies, we are then flipped over, and allowed to RIP.

      Delete
  11. WTF?

    Is you one of them Holocaust Believers?

    ReplyDelete
  12. .

    The rat resorts to form. First, he puts up a legitimate albeit controversial post (with excellent photos and artwork which seems to be his forte). Then he ruins it by showing his true intent in the last paragraph where he singles out a specific contributor here. [I assume that little editorial comment is against the rules and will be pulled down.]

    Then you have the lucky joe from Idaho filling up the rest of the pace with the same old worn out excuses for Israeli policy.

    Looks like it's going to be one of them days at the bar.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I put it up after 22:00 hrs, last night, Quirk.

      By 06:00hrs, this morning, Farmer Bob had around twenty-five posts.

      Aroused by his interest, after telling us how boring the posts on the Ukraine have been ...
      So, here was a subject that Farmer Bob WAS interested in, he was involved with, that he was 'into it'.

      So, the addition of the closing paragraph IS apropos.
      For all those readers that thought the Blog was going into the toilet,
      I just had to let them know that this thread, about Israel and is aggression against the Palestinians, it's flaunting of the norms of the Civilized World, well, this thread has Farmer Bob's 'Seal of Approval"

      He voted with his keyboard.
      I wanted the world to know that we had found a subject that he was engaged with.

      Delete
    2. .

      Rationalize all you want, rat.

      .

      Delete
    3. Editorializing is what 'Blogging' is all about, Quirk.

      If you think the post is 'Controversial", tell us why.

      Delete
    4. Rationalization, that is what 'Blogging' is all about.

      Farmer Bob threatened my life, last Sunday.
      Me and all the other residents of Arizona.
      Said we should be shot and our carcasses sold for their meat.

      I did not find it at all 'humorous'.
      Do not think that threatening genocide is 'funny'.

      I take umbrage at the threat and will not let it go.
      I had dismissed all the previous threats, lies and false characterizations made by Farmer Bob, in his previous incarnations.

      He refused to do the same.
      He threaten me and mine with murder and butchery.

      I'd pray that he dies of the cancer, but it is probably just another of his lies.
      Like when he told us his wife was terminal.

      Delete
    5. .

      I did not find it at all 'humorous'.
      Do not think that threatening genocide is 'funny'.



      Lord, you have completely lost it, fella. Off the deep end. Wacko.

      .

      Delete
    6. .

      Rationalization, that is what 'Blogging' is all about.

      I can only assume you did not understand the meaning of the word 'rationalize' as I used it. That, or that you have had a brief moment of self-awareness.

      The meaning of 'rationalize' as used in my original comment [from Dictionary.com]

      ra·tion·al·ize [rash-uh-nl-ahyz, rash-nl-ahyz] Show IPA

      verb (used with object), ra·tion·al·ized, ra·tion·al·iz·ing.

      1. to ascribe (one's acts, opinions, etc.) to causes that superficially seem reasonable and valid but that actually are unrelated to the true, possibly unconscious and often less creditable or agreeable causes.


      Now, had you changed your comment to read: Rationalization, that is what 'My Blogging' is all about. I would have found it hard to disagree.

      .

      Delete
  13. .

    That Shining City on the Hill

    The liberal dream seems to be taking flight in New York City as new mayor, Bill de Blasio, moves to bring to reality his utopian dreams.

    The end result? We shall see.

    Prediction: It won't work out as planned. De Blasio will blame reactionary forces (and other troglodytes) for any failure. SOP

    In Bill de Blasio’s City Hall, it seems more and more, there is only a left wing.

    The mayor, who advanced in politics by grass-roots organizing, has built a team filled with former activists — figures more accustomed to picketing administrations or taking potshots from the outside than working from within. His administration is heavily populated with appointees best known for the fights they have fought.

    On Friday, Mr. de Blasio appointed Steven Banks, who is the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society and a longtime critic of city policies affecting low-income residents, as commissioner of the city’s Human Resources Administration. Mr. Banks recently praised the new mayor for transferring hundreds of children and their families from two homeless shelters cited for violations that made the facilities unfit and unsafe for children.

    Mr. Banks has spent his career facing off with city government at public meetings and in the courts. But he is embraced in a de Blasio administration.

    “We’ve said all along, as we make appointments, our standards are clear,” Mr. de Blasio said in announcing the appointments of Mr. Banks, who once lost to him in a City Council race, and two other officials. “We need people who share our progressive values related to the future of this city.”


    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/01/nyregion/de-blasio-picks-more-liberal-activists-than-managers-for-city-posts.html?hp&_r=0

    .

    ReplyDelete
  14. .

    Yes, there is money in those medical records.

    The NHS will be legally barred from selling personal medical records for insurance and commercial purposes in a new drive to protect patient privacy, the Health Secretary will announce next week...

    The privacy drive comes after The Telegraph disclosed this week that 13 years of hospital data - covering 47million patients - was sold by the NHS for insurance purposes.



    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/10669295/NHS-legally-barred-from-selling-patient-data-for-commercial-use.html

    .

    ReplyDelete
  15. .

    The Seven Keys That Control The Internet

    http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/28/seven-people-keys-worldwide-internet-security-web

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet that would be an interesting article.

      Delete
    2. Can't. My eyes glazed over after about the second paragraph, and I gave up somewhere around the third.

      Delete
    3. Well, there you have it, thn.

      I didn't even try, not being at all concerned about the seven keys to controlling the world wide web.

      Quirk, another fella that won't author a thread, but does have input as to how others should.

      Delete
    4. something to do with "domain addresses."

      Delete
    5. .

      Oh my!

      Are you boys attempting humor or just bored stiff? You just spend six posts talking about something you are not at all interested in.

      :-o

      .

      .




      You boys be funny (or lack anything else to do).

      Delete
    6. Rat posted a clickable link, and asked me to report back. I did. What's the problemo, dude?

      Delete
  16. Farmer Bob finds this to be an
    INTERESTING SUBJECT!
    Making more comments here, than anywhere.
    More Israeli Apartheid Threads Will Be Coming His Way
    It is what he wants to discuss!

    Didn't notice that until I read Q.

    One of the people I read.

    "Bullying, outing, taunting and making false or malicious unsubstantiated charges against another member is not allowed."

    This place is nothing but a farce.

    I had to get up to piss last night and decided to put up some proforma rebuttals. If The Management would get rid of Jackrat all would immediately go back to going well.

    But The Management doesn't enforce its own rules.

    With Jackrat around it nearing the point where this blog should be termed and labeled a hate site.

    ******

    Just woke up from a long nap, having to piss. For the first time the flow was hard to start, though I felt like I was about to explode. The doc mentioned this might happen, along with pain. Discomfort is what I had, along with beginning to wonder if I was ever going to get going. The doc keeps asking about constipation on the one hand and running stool on the other, so I guess that may be coming one of these days.

    I mention my prostate problem for the benefit of others around my age you may be interested. You never know who is reading.

    Deuce kept the place going, for instance, after some older guy named John I think wrote in from a rest home, urging him to do so, saying it was all he had to read, and saying he particularly liked the late night guys, which Deuce speculated must be Doug and I.

    Who knows, maybe some older guy is contemplating prostate treatments or surgery and is interested.

    That is why I mention it.

    That, and the benefits to gambling.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "You never know who is reading."

      Other than the universe, of course, which has a memory.

      "All is retained", said Walt Whitman, "each deed, word, thought, all is retained."

      The religions, especially Hinduism, teach the same, and as well we having the testimony of all those near death folks who report meeting their words, and deeds, and even thoughts in a life review.

      Only on a blog can statements be deleted, and even then there are those who recall what was said.

      Those we think religion 'pie in the sky' just don't quite get it.

      Delete
    2. I'm beginning to worry about Miss T. Maybe she just decided it wasn't worth it and decided to chuck it too. That would make six by my count.

      I hope she is OK.

      Delete
    3. http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=imrt

      Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy, and How It Is Used

      For the benefit of interested others.

      There are plenty of info sources on the web.

      Delete
  17. .

    Quirk, another fella that won't author a thread, but does have input as to how others should.

    Are you objecting to my comment on your thread? I've noticed over the last couple that you seem a little sensitive when someone questions anything about them.

    Today, I pointed out that you had put up a legitimate and nicely put together piece and that it was only at the end that you turned what was a pretty good stream into a niggling and personal attack. I would have had no issue had you responded to Bob's posts within the comments section; yet, you didn't. Instead, you offer up obfuscation and bullshit and tack it onto a perfectly good stream as some childish, personal attack.

    This is Deuce's blog. He can do with it what he will. Yesterday, he complimented you on the stream you put up. It will be interesting to see if he says anything about today's.

    .


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it will be interesting.

      Delete
    2. I thought rat was suggesting you post above the fold quirk.

      Delete
    3. .

      Always like to know what you think Ash.

      .

      Delete
  18. Our Man on the Job -

    Russian parliament demands recall of ambassador to USA...
    REPORT: Obama Skips National Security Team Meeting.......drudge

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      We are hinting we may skip the G-8 summit. You have to wonder what effect that threat will have on Putin.

      .

      Delete
  19. " It looks that way to Israelis only because they have singularly insulated themselves from reality."

    The Israelis, & specifically Jews, are targeted to be killed wherever a good little follower of mohamad finds them.
    That's the reality they all need to wrap their heads around.

    Occupying Gaza is about the least Israel can do to protect the people of Gaza. From their own bloodlust.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      If you think the post is 'Controversial", tell us why.

      This is your answer, rat.

      .

      Delete
    2. ROP, Dougman, ROP.

      Learn it, love it, live it!

      Delete
    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    4. To conflate Israel or Zionism with Judaism, is fanciful, and pure propaganda.

      The Palestinians and Zionist live together, in Palestine. The Zionists harming, physically, many more Palestinians than the Palestinians harm Zionist Israeli.

      The numbers do not lie. They are clearly stated in the post.

      If Dougman chooses to ignore the facts, that is not 'controversial', it is ignorant.

      700,000 Palestinians have been displaced by the Israeli.
      What is the corresponding number of Israeli either displaced of killed by the Palestinians?

      To inject religion into the debate, just another propaganda move by those that do not want to face reality.

      What is controversial, is Dougman claim that the Israel Zionists represent Judaism.

      Delete
    5. If Dougman chooses to ignore the facts, that is not 'controversial', it is ignorant.

      Ignorant? Maybe.
      It's confusing to me, all these terms, labels and religion that seperate people.
      'Tribe' this and 'Hail' that.

      I'll reread the post and hopefully have something cogent to say.

      Delete
    6. To inject religion into the debate, just another propaganda move by those that do not want to face reality.

      Ask any muslim if they are to leave their religion out of any part of their daily lives.
      Apostate.
      Unbeliever.
      Submit to Allah or die.

      Delete
    7. .

      If Dougman chooses to ignore the facts, that is not 'controversial', it is ignorant.

      Let me know when that new Rat-World Dictionary gets published, rat.

      Until then I'll go with the standard meaning of the word 'controversial' not your opinion or what you would like it to mean.

      .

      Delete
  20. Fuck you, Dougman, you suck Big Time!

    (Warming up for the Main Feature to come here on the "Good"knights of the Dinnertable)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Why don't you two learn to put your comments in the right queue, Q and DougBoy?

    ReplyDelete
  22. I know I have sinned, dear G_d, but what have I done, or could possibly do to deserve this fate?

    ---

    DOWD: Brace Yourself for Hillary and Jeb...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Banana Republic time, Doug.

      The wives and sons of past leaders, the only folk 'Qualified' to run the show.

      Delete
    2. I just hope '41 and Hillary's mom are still around to hold the Bible.

      Delete
  23. None of us self-styled "humorists" could make this shit up!

    ---

    "Russian parliament demands recall of ambassador to USA...

    REPORT: Obama Skips National Security Team Meeting..."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Putin for POTUS, 2016!

      SOMEBODY's gotta look out for this country.

      Delete
  24. "PUTIN CALLS BLUFF: REQUESTS MILITARY FORCE"

    How coulda he known it was a bluff ???

    Pootie's a Psychic, I tell ya!

    ReplyDelete
  25. If any of us had had any mercy whatsoever, we wouldn't have had kids.

    ReplyDelete
  26. "According to Time magazine's Zeke Miller, Obama skipped the meeting. "Obama did not attend the meeting, but WH official says he has been briefed by Susan Rice and his national security team," says Miller."

    ---

    I nominate Obammie for Comedian of The New Millenium.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good to know he got the straight dope from the Truthteller in Chief.

      Delete
    2. Why go to a meeting, nothing would come of it, nothing done in Washington will have effect on the ground, in the Crimea.

      There was a street rebellion, the lawful President left the capital, to regroup where his supporters are.

      That is pretty typical of unstable countries.
      What would/ could Obama do about it?

      He funded the rebellion, at least in part, if the video from RT was even half accurate.

      The game is in play, not time to change course.
      It is still to early in the first quarter.

      Plus our team is still ahead, the country will partition, everyone wins, but the Ukrainians.

      Obama does not need to go to another meeting to find that out.

      Delete
    3. Form over substance, Jack.

      That's why you'll never be POTUS.

      Delete
    4. He can't replay Libya, not with the Russians in the game.
      The Crimea, that is well within the Russian sphere of influence.

      I am sure the Russians have their own version of the Monroe Doctrine, if they don't, they will, if given cause by US.

      Delete
    5. For $100:

      When was the last time the Ukrainians ever won?

      Delete
    6. They thought they had when they elected that Blonde Bombshell, but she turned out to be just another crook, albeit a better than average looking crook.

      Delete
    7. Does the Monroe Doctrine have to with the skirt being blown up above the panties?

      Delete
    8. Depends if you think Kalinovka, Khomutovsky District, Kursk Oblast, is in Russia or the Ukraine. It is one of the regions where the border is in flux, where it has moved, over time.

      Like between the US and Mexico.

      If it is in the Ukraine, then they won when Khrushchev became Premier of the Soviet Union.

      If not ...

      Delete
  27. Quit your sniveling, Doug, the Ukraine story is boring, Farmer Bob said so.

    War in Europe, of no consequence to Farmer Bob.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He still hasn't explained how they lift them ships up 700 feet!

      ...and you thought Panama was some kinda big deal!

      Delete
    2. To much time in the port, drowning his sorrows.

      Delete
  28. Time for my weekly shower, boys, ta ta.

    ...don't let your meats loaf.

    ReplyDelete
  29. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obama knew this going into the deal, it is not news, it is the reality on the ground.
      To show 'concern' would be 'bad form', to act as if it were 'nothing' the proper form.
      The US and its allies have won, all that there was to 'win'

      They should bask in the joy of victory, where and when they can.
      Which is now, in Kiev.

      Ukraine Finds Its Forces Are Ill Equipped to Take Crimea Back From Russia

      The Russian takeover of Crimea was relatively easy, in part because the Ukrainian military was careful not to respond to a provocation that would excuse any larger intervention. The military — which has seen its top leader change constantly with the political situation — has also made a point of staying out of the internal political conflict in Ukraine.

      Delete
  30. If I murder my roommate, will God send me to Hell for committing suicide?

    ReplyDelete