Dec 25 2010
This evening and tomorrow many among us will celebrate what they consider to be the most significant holiday of the year.
The weekly installment of this Friday evening series falls on the eve of that holiday, an opportunity that will not present itself again until the year 2021. This country, and much of the world, for that matter, will likely look much different then than it does now.
Dec 25 2010
I was going to write on a completely different topic, but decided that some Christmas music would be appropriate, since I often write about music here. Most of the songs are either from my childhood or from comparatively long ago. I have no “new” favorite Christmas songs.
What I intend to impart is just this: Christmas is a legal holiday in the United States, but is also a time for people of any, or no, faith to come together and celebrate family and friends. I care not a whit if you are Jewish, Wiccan, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Shinto, Taoist, Buddhist, a believer in Confucius, or any other religion, or none at all.
In the United States, Christmas is recognized officially, for good or ill. If all of the great religious can agree about anything, it is good will towards everyone. With this in mind, please enjoy with me a bit of music that sort of makes the season for me.
Dec 25 2010
“You know, like a good Jew, I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”
-Elena Kagan at her confirmation hearing, responding to Lindsay Graham’s question, “Where were you on Christmas Day?”
Justice Kagan — Definitely good for the Jews, and a perfect introduction for the Upper West Fourth Annual Jewish Christmas Eve Diary, in which each December 24, we Torah folk huddle around a handsome piece of driftwood,* rest after a tough war on Christmas and review the year for Yids.
On Kos, in 2007, we groused about right wing Jews like Bill Kristol. In 2008, we commiserated about Bernie Madoff. And in 2009, we kvetched about Joe Lieberman and kvelled about Bernie Sanders.
(cross-posted on Kos)
And 2010? Well, just for starters, this year I realized that Barack Obama is a Jew. Don’t believe me? Follow me below:
The Year in Jews:
1. Barack Obama
The Birthers and Dunkers have it all wrong. Obama cannot be a Muslim. First, as we know by reading certain diaries here, he is a capitalist tool who has sold out the left. On the other hand, to the teabaggers, he is a dangerous Marxist/Communist who nefariously wants to “spread the wealth.”
Well, there’s only one group that has consistently been denounced as being both capitalists tools and communists at the same time: Since Father Coughlin and before, and in Hollywood, Jews have been simultaneously villains of the left and right.
So by definition, Barack Obama, marxist revolutionary and capitalist tool, must be a Jew.
2. Eric Cantor
An open letter to Eric’s mother:
Dear Mrs. Cantor,Eric seems like such a nice Jewish boy. What is he doing hanging out with such a disreputable bunch of goniffs like Michelle Bachman, John Boehner, Darrel Issa and Andy Harris (the “I want my government health care guy”).
Please have a talk with him. Really, it’s a shonda.
With concern,
Upper West
3. Jew or not a Jew?
Amar’e Stoudemaire? (21st c. Willis Reed, in my view) visited Israel, but a long shot (farther than a three pointer).
Forever Rapper Drake. Yes!
Natalie and Mila. Of course! Best Jewish fantasy/reality cinematic ballet stars evah!
4. Abe Foxman: Schmendrick of the year:
From the Burlington Coat Mosque to Glenn Beck on Soros, Abe has been a complete disgrace. Just cut it out, Abe. You’re embarrassing us.
:::::::::::::::::
So, nu? Who are some other newly revealed Jews? What were your favorite Jewish events of 2010? New Nixon and Kissinger tapes — anti-Semite and self-hating Jew?
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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* My mother, a devout Jewish Ethical Culturalist, every year actually decorated a nice piece of driftwood she got from the beach from our house in Rockaway Beach when I was a kid. Last year’s diary mentioned that she was in the late stages of Pulmonary Fibrosis. She died a month later at 94, after a life filled with dance, beauty, music and love.
Dec 25 2010
WILTON, CT-Michael Chandler looks out the windows of his sun room, past the swimming pool and guest cottage, to the wide backyard where his two children are playing with their pet dalmatian, Scotty. At a time when Americans everywhere are sharing the struggle of a once-in-a-generation recession, Chandler can’t help but wonder how he and his family fell through the cracks.
“It’s just not fair,” said the 49-year-old real estate developer and grandson of oil baron Duncan Chandler. “Everyone is worrying about an uncertain future and coming together to express their outrage, and I don’t get to be a part of it.”
Staring out at the ornate garden where workers were installing a large marble fountain, Chandler sighed and added, “It’s like I don’t even exist.”
According to the multimillionaire, the past 18 months have been incredibly difficult to endure, as he is often left feeling excluded from an American populace that includes millions who struggle every day to make ends meet. Chandler, who watched helplessly as his enormous fortune easily withstood the market freefall, has been “completely left out” of one of this nation’s most significant cultural moments.
“Everybody’s suffering,” Chandler said. “And here I am, not scrimping and saving at all, with no demoralizing periods of financial hardship, or frantic weeks living paycheck to paycheck. What about me, you know? Where’s my struggle?”
“Everyone’s supposed to get a fair shake at this misery,” Chandler added. “Even incredibly wealthy people of privilege like me.”
[snip]
“Every month they announce tens of thousands of layoffs,” Chandler said, “and every time, I’m not one of them. No matter what I say or do, it’ll never be me. My only memory of this historic point in time will be the prosperity I have always known.”
Added Chandler, “Dear God, when’s this recession going to end?”
Dec 25 2010
One in 4 Utahns are now protected for employment and housing discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity now that Grand County has become the tenth local governmental body to pass protections.
Cities and towns in Grand County are Castle Valley (population 349) and Moab (4779), the unincorporated areas Brendel (aka Crescent Junction) and Thompson Springs, and the ghost town, Cisco.
Dec 24 2010
I nominate this post as the wittiest understatement of the year. Heh. And speaking only for me.
Obama’s remarkably symbolic legislative agenda of false victories can hug my chub.
Liberal Democrats bragging about their support for Obama can hug my chub, too. Aside from Obama’s being a major cover-up artist for wealthy corporate interests and war criminals, everything that is wrong with Obama is contained in this graph:
Fucking “Liberals.”
Dec 24 2010
I know that the GOP hasn’t taken over the House yet, but at the same time the markets are considered to be “forward looking indicators” by respected economists.
Given that, let’s look at what has happened since the huge Republican victory in November.
Dec 24 2010
(Wikileaks transcript of CIA intercept translated from Arabic by Jacob Freeze)
“Marwan! Let us plan how strike America! Xmas terrorisms I am visualize!”
“Excellently you is think, Mohamed! Plan, then fly most direct New York outgoing nearby Hamburg International Airport!!!”
“No. Got to plan Xmas terrorisms from ass-hole of nowhere!”
A nest of al Qaeda in the Nari District of Kunar Province, Afghanistan
“Where what? Say to me not you is meaning back of beyond aka Naray (Nari), on no road nowhere no electric nothing Afghan crevasse/jumblejumble, where those there indigenous human him only got beans for eat/sell!”
Planning Xmas terror in Nari Kunar!
“How go thou in/out, Mohamed?”
“Fly Hamburg Karachi, Karachi Kabul, Kabul Jalalabad, buy donkey, walk/ride 34 days.”
“Why?”
“Got to meet there with al Qaeda mastermind!”
Dec 24 2010
As this Country Still Refuses to Sacrifice Themselves, in any way, keep in mind the soldiers deployed and their families here!
Dec 24 2010
Nah, hey I don’t care. See you learn something new everyday about the new Illuminati banking procedures.
Does my non CARBON EXEMPT ass give a rats ass just because it’s Christmas.
Will elvin hat go home and look up the term Illuminati!
How sappy will next week be when lamestream media rehashes it’s bogus sound bytes of this greatest of Satanic years.
Dec 24 2010
U.S. OKs business with terror-supporting nations
Loopholes let companies get lucrative deals with Iran, Cuba, North Korea
By JO BECKER
NEW YORK – Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has granted special licenses allowing American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism, an examination by The New York Times has found.
At the behest of a host of companies – from Kraft Food and Pepsi to some of the nation’s largest banks – a little-known office of the Treasury Department has made nearly 10,000 exceptions to American sanctions rules, approving deals involving countries that have been cast into economic purgatory, beyond the reach of American business.
