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When I hear the words “public good”, I reach for my gun.

The greatest public good is to be left alone and not be taxed (except for protection), controlled and “governed” by politicians. Let the public good be managed by the public itself (did someone say “democracy”?) and by entrepreneurs — who are the real government of our society. Not the boys and girls who get salary for brainwashing the masses.

Besides the fact that the idea that bailing out press — of all industries — is the last example of “public good” I can imagine. The greatest public good would be to pierce this snake’s head with a sharp stake.

Heimish vs. Aimish

One time my rabbi was asked if a non-Jewish girl can come and observe the Kabbalos Shabbos, Friday night dinner, etc. I don’t remember if this was for a paper or a project or just out of curiosity.

He answered: “This is not a zoo.”

I don’t really understand this phenomenon (see also the article on CrownHeight.info).

What was the point of this? So, to go to a theater is past nisht, because it’s a public act of bittul Torah. But to walk around Crown Heights with Aimish, showing off Chassidim to them as “not so different from you” and to the rest of the world as “cute little cartoon characters” (yes I stole this phrase from Stranger Amongst Us) is fine?

What exactly was the point of this? In what way is it Kiddush Hashem to associate ourselves with backward, primitive people who distrust technology because it will supposedly ruin their lives and push them away from G-d?

Let those who ban Internet associate themselves with the Aimish. The Chabad way is: “Everything that G-d created, He created for His glory” and “just because the fools worship sun, moon and stars, should G-d destroy His Universe?” We use technology and the rest of this world for G-dly purposes and thus make a dwelling place for G-d in this world. Also, we don’t draw the strength from banning things and creating walls around ourselves — we draw strength from making sure Judaism is internalized, deep and meaningful for us, not superficial and based on emotions and only simple faith. “Chochma—Bina—Daas”, man. (Even as Chassidim, we don’t hold on to our Rebbe’s gartel, but learn his teachings. The theology of Judaism.)

Yes, it is important to influence the “outside”, both Jews and, lehavdil, non-Jews. But these are religious, fundamentalist Christians. The whole time they were thinking: “This is all very nice, but these people killed our god.” They don’t allow technology take over their lives — good for them. Nu, so what does this have to do with us? They are superficially similar to Chassidim; yeah, this thought has passed through many people’s minds. It’s cute. But only superficially. It seems that the Aimish themselves saw this clearly too:

John Lapp and his wife, Priscilla, brought their three children on the tour. John Lapp said the ties to the communities might be more surface than substance.

"In some things we are alike, like our clothing and our traditional beliefs," he said. Priscilla Lapp added, "And in some things we are not. The biggest thing is that [that man] is our savior."

Also, everyone knows that journalists lie. And that they will paint anything two feet to the right or to the left of Brad Pitt as exotic and backwards. This tendency stems from liberals’ love to observe foreign primitive cultures and, as Arbat writes, to become distressed when the natives’ “natural culture” is disrupted by immunization shots or installation of toilets in their houses.

So, the best thing to prevent this is control what reaches the media. When you invite a bunch of Aimish to Crown Heights, you are sure to get these pearls:

Today's Lubavitchers wear the black hats and beards of their 18th-century forebears, speak Yiddish and refrain from turning on electricity or driving cars on the Sabbath. ...

However, both groups use one modern amenity — cell phones that kept ringing as they wandered through Crown Heights. And the Hasids ironically operate the famed B&H electronics retail store in Manhattan that serves customers from around the world. [What is ironic about this, I have no idea.] ...

The groups also toured a Jewish library and a "matzo factory," where round, unleavened bread was being made for the Passover holiday.

There, a cross-cultural misunderstanding caused one of the Jewish men to look at the Amish, and ask, repeatedly, "Are you from Usbekhistan?"

An Amish man, also confused, asked, "Afghanistan?"

Finally, as they were leaving, another Amish man announced to the matzo-makers: "We're from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania!"

The whole article presents Chabad, the community that brings to the world the essence of the primordial thought Hashem had before creating this world, as a lemming colony described in a National Geographic issue. Good job. Perhaps Rabbi Beryl Epstein would be better off by helping his wife clean the house for Peisach.

Update: I get it. This was an April Fool joke. Wow. Got me.

Paved with good intentions

There is a Russian saying: “A fool without initiative is better than a fool with initiative.” At least the first fool doesn’t do anything — he is just being an idiot quietly. The second one wracks havoc with his well-intentioned idiocy.

But of course, the lovers of the current President seem to think that as long as he has good intentions (something I also find quite hard to believe), all will be good. Everyone will try really-really hard and believe in our success, and we will succeed. Against the cynicism and the laws of nature.

It’s a bit like saying, “Dude, you’re trying to go from Boston to New York, but you got on I-95 North, not South”, and hearing in response: “Well, yeah, we may disagree about the direction in which we are supposed to go, but at least I am driving fast. You can’t disagree that I am driving fast, right?” Yeah, you’re driving fast — in the wrong direction. At this pace, you will get closer to New York by breaking down. Which is my answer to all those hurting souls who ask Conservatives: “Whyyyy would you want our President to faaaaail?! Doesn’t our country have enough problems?” Yes — people like you and the president you elected.

In any event, as Mises Economic Blog comments, “There are still elected people [...] who make sense.”

PARIS — The European Union’s crisis of leadership during the economic downturn was thrown into sharp relief on Wednesday, as the current president of the 27-nation bloc labeled President Obama’s emergency stimulus package “a way to hell” that will “undermine the stability of the global financial market.”

The blunt comments by the Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the union, came just a week before a crucial meeting of the Group of 20 that was called to show global solidarity in fighting the recession. The comments were greeted with embarrassment by many Europeans who believe that the Czech leader does not represent a European consensus. [source]

Of course not. The European consensus is to cure an allergic response through a blood transfusion: by drawing blood from the leg and injecting it into the arm. What? It’s the problem with blood, stupid. We will inject some fresh blood into the system, and “jump-start” the body…

* * *

The classical model of a liberal from everyday life is that driver who lets someone waiting to make a turn go in front of him, while there are fifty cars standing in the traffic behind him. It’s the typical description of liberal thinking that Henry Hazlitt warns about in his book, Economics in One Lesson: any time you make a decision about success or appropriateness of some policy, you can’t just think about one specific group of people. You have to look at everyone affected, including those not immediately in front of your nose.

You may bail out a company, saving a thousand jobs. So, you helped out a thousand people in front of you. But you hurt tens and hundreds of thousands by the same move! But no, the liberal never looks in a rear-view mirror. Emotion—reflex—response. Thinking too hard is cruel and immoral.

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

So simple. And at the same time, so ungraspable for a liberal mind.

* * *

Now that we are on the topic of Czechs, a cute commercial about Czech beer and Bedř ich Smetana, the famous composer who wrote a piece called “Má Vlast” (“My Fatherland”) while already deaf:

— I can’t compose for you a national song, gentlemen, because I can’t hear anything.
— But sir...
— I can’t hear, gentlemen!..
A servant brings in beer; Smetana looks at it.
— Pen!..

Puzzled in Gaza

THERE WERE empty beds at Shifa Hospital and a threatening atmosphere. Hamas is reduced to wielding its unchallengeable authority from extensive air raid shelters which, together with the hospital, were built by Israel 30 years ago. Terrorized Gazans used doublespeak when they told me most of the alleged 5,500 wounded were being treated in Egypt and Jordan. They want it known that the figure is a lie, and showed me that the wounded weren't in Gaza. No evidence exists of their presence in foreign hospitals, or of how they might have gotten there.

From the mansions of the Abu Ayida family at Jebala Rayes to Tallel Howa (Gaza City's densest residential area), Gazans contradicted allegations that Israel had murderously attacked civilians. They told me again and again that both civilians and Hamas fighters had evacuated safely from areas of Hamas activity in response to Israeli telephone calls, leaflets and megaphone warnings.

A good read.

The evil empire of WalMart

Well!.. I!.. Never!..

Charles Platt decided to go undercover and investigate the inner cobweb of the evil empire that WalMart is. Here’s the report.

As TRS says, if you want to make a liberal mad, work hard and smile.

You have to wonder, then, why the store has such a terrible reputation, and I have to tell you that so far as I can determine, trade unions have done most of the mudslinging. Web sites that serve as a source for negative stories are often affiliated with unions. Walmartwatch.com, for instance, is partnered with the Service Employees International Union; Wakeupwalmart.com is entirely owned by United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. For years, now, they’ve campaigned against Wal-Mart, for reasons that may have more to do with money than compassion for the working poor. If more than one million Wal-Mart employees in the United States could be induced to join a union, by my calculation they’d be compelled to pay more than half-billion dollars each year in dues.

Anti-growth activists are the other primary source of anti-Wal-Mart sentiment. In the town where I worked, I was told that activists even opposed a new Barnes & Noble because it was "too big". If they're offended by a large bookstore, you can imagine how they feel about a discount retailer.

The argument, of course, is that smaller enterprises cannot compete. My outlook on this is hardcore: I think that many of the "mom-and-pop" stores so beloved by activists don't deserve to remain in business.

When I first ventured from New York City to the American heartland, I did my best to patronize quaint little places on Main Street and quickly discovered the penalties for doing so. At a small appliance store, I wasn't allowed to buy a microwave oven on display. I had to place an order and wait a couple of weeks for delivery. At a stationery store where I tried to buy a file cabinet, I found the same problem. Think back, if you are old enough to do so, and you may recall that this is how small-town retailing used to function in the 1960s.

As a customer, I don't see why I should protect a business from the harsh realities of commerce if it can't maintain a good inventory at a competitive price. And as an employee, I see no advantage in working at a small place where I am subject to the quixotic moods of a sole proprietor, and can never appeal to his superior, because there isn't one.

By the same logic, I see no reason for legislators to protect Safeway supermarkets with ploys such as zoning restrictions, which just happen to allow a supermarket-sized building while outlawing a Wal-Mart SuperCenter that's a few thousand square feet bigger.

Based on my experience (admittedly, only at one location) I reached a conclusion which is utterly opposed to almost everything ever written about Wal-Mart. I came to regard it as one of the all-time enlightened American employers, right up there with IBM in the 1960s. Wal-Mart is not the enemy. It's the best friend we could ask for.

He promised, and he is starting to deliver

Change is pretty much here. As is hope.

What else was on the list?

“Have a nice war...”

Shoe-throwing journalist fears for his life

From here:

“He is in danger over there”, Poggia told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Monday. “He’s also in danger in other Muslim countries because people who support his action could try to make him a martyr.”

But… that’s… good for him, isn’t it? Or maybe all those virgins are not looking so good anymore? (I mean, after all is said and done, one is stuck with seventy-two wives. Not good…)

So... non-Jewish

My great-grandmother would say “Ribboinu shel oilam! So goyish! Feh!”, had she read this article. There is something very non-Jewish about estimating what would happen if (or when) a certain man died¹, G-d forbid.

Is it politically incorrect to say this? Probably. My politically correct artist friend, who is sensitive to other people’s (and creatures’) feelings would possibly get upset. But it’s still true. This level of eidelkeit is a Jewish characteristic. I don’t think it’s genetic — it derives from culture, which is (turtles all the way down) based on Torah, but there you are…

On the other hand, I believe this is an aspect of not so much non-Jewish culture as secular culture, which (whether shared by Jews or non-Jews) is, of course, also non-Jewish — i.e., “anti-Torah”. I would hope that a ben or bas Noach (a non-Jew following the aspects of Torah for non-Jews and Torah’s general ethical and spiritual principles) wouldn’t speculate on results of somebody’s death either.

* * *

This is more of a rambling than a post. I just read somewhere a Russian person writing angrily that Tanya says that all non-Jews are “akin to filth and worse than animals”. I answered that first of all, he is a liar. Second, he is an idiot. Third, for the masses reading our exchange, one needs to look at the context (not just the immediate context of a quote, but general context of where the author is coming from) before drawing rash conclusions. (For the masses reading this, Alter Rebbe speaks about something entirely different from what that guy said, thought and meant — but this is not the place to discuss this. For reference, see Chapter 1 of Tanya, including the note from Reb Hillel Paritcher’s siddur at the very end of the chapter.)

But after that, I remembered to myself what the Alter Rebbe did when asked about this line (not the one above, but the actual line) in Tanya. He smiled.

And then I saw the article about Steve Jobs.

* * *

Speaking of hashgacha protis, what are the chances of leaving your lab’s building at 7 pm on a Sunday night, walking to animal facility, standing in front of the door, realizing that you forgot the wallet (with the ID necessary to get into the Foster) at home in your Shabbos pants, and then seeing a co-worker walk out of the vivarium’s door and holding the door for you? Right when you need him. On Sunday night. On a long weekend. After the lights-off (for mice). While listening to Rabbi Paltiel’s shiur on Frierdiker Rebbe’s ma’amor (OK, that’s not such a big deal, since I am doing that most of the time anyway).

An atheist would say: “luck”, “chance”, etc. I say: in the argument with my artist friend regarding ethical appropriatness of what I am doing with animals, Hashem is on my side. :)

* * *

On the other hand, this all may be not about Jews vs. non-Jews, religious people vs. secular, Torah vs. klipah, but in fact about normal people vs. journalists.

________
¹ My rabbi once said that he had been included by someone in a will. He told that person’s lawyer that it would be better if the person gave him the money right away — that way my rabbi would be able to do mitzvos with that money in the honor of the person’s health (and pray for it), instead of waiting for him to die and the money to go over. :)

Conservative news for kids

… or not for kids. Anyway, who is this guy? :)

What is taught at UN schools

Why would evil Israelis fire at a UN school for innocent Arab children (and by children I mean boys)?



Of course, this is not the angle most journalists have played it from. After all, would you expect journalist to go against their nature and be responsible, as Noah Pollak suggests?

Allow me to propose a metric for evaluating whether a journalist is behaving responsibly or not: If he reports that Israel bombed a UN school and killed 30 civilians, he is irresponsible.

If he reports that Hamas used a UN school as a weapons cache and base of operations for launching mortars at the IDF, and the IDF’s return fire killed the Hamas cell along, tragically, with a yet-unspecified number of civilians, then he is behaving responsibly. If he wishes to be particularly scrupulous, he might additionally note that Hamas had rigged the school with explosives which detonated after the IDF took out the mortar team, killing a large additional number of civilians.

And he might add that you can go to the IDF’s Youtube channel to view footage from 2007 of Hamas using the very same school as a mortar-launching base.

Journalists who abjure reporting the vital details of this story should be called what they are — activists masquerading as reporters.

Good luck finding a scrupulous journalist.

Bloomberg on “disproportional” response

NYC mayor gives it to a sniveling CNN journalist:

(CNN bastards took off the video from their resource — thankfully, there is one on YouTube)

Thanks to Dixie Yid for posting.

An even better analogy than the one Bloomberg used is: imagine that 15 bandits come to your house and say, “Get out! This house belongs to us now!” When you don’t get out, they start shooting in your windows, killing, G-d forbid, your daughter.

You take a gun, get out of the building and start shooting at the sons of bitches. Ten of them are killed; the rest flee. Your neighbors condemn you: “Well, they killed only one of your children. First of all, you still have other three children left. Second, you killed ten people for one person — that’s a disproportionate response!”

The only answer that a normal human being can give to that is: “[Expletives deleted]! Hell, I am sorry I didn’t finish the rest of [expletive deleted].”

By the way, I like how they show explosion scenes in the background. Thinking, of course, a liberast seeing this will be horrified. At the same time, a normal person’s response is: “Alright! Way to go!”

Some more examples of palestinian propaganda in AP

“Palestinian Propaganda 101”.

Israel Defense Force videos

From PowerLine blog:

This morning, Scott noted that the Israeli Defense Force had set up a YouTube channel to which it uploaded videos of the fighting in Gaza, but YouTube deleted some of the videos. With the assistance of Noah Pollak, we’ve obtained the videos and will be posting them this afternoon.

Go to the link above to see the two videos. I just watched them — very-very cool stuff. You can see missiles being loaded on a truck in the first video until — bam! The second one has “some remarkable videos transmitted from the noses of rockets or missiles”.

Also, this:



Other videos of IDF’s YouTube channel here.

C’est la vie

A Russian joke:

An English lord is sitting in his office; he hears noise outside his windows, loud shots. He calls his butler and asks:
— Barrymore, what is going on?
— London prostitutes are protesting; they say they need higher pay, sir.
— And are they really getting low pay?
— I wouldn’t say so, sir.
— So why are they protesting?
— Whores, sir.

OK, the joke (like most Russian jokes) is poorly translatable into English. But, why did I suddenly think of this joke? Well, I usually think about whores when I read about news media. This time, it was a little piece here by Istapundit.

American media opinionator Greg Mitchell at HuffPo, silent on missiles coming out of Gaza, decries American media opinion silence on missiles going back into Gaza.

There is nothing new under the moon.

Political correctness or criminal liberal sickness?

A good read from Power Line blog: “Hand-Wringing Over Terrorirsts”.

It’s unclear to me what “deeper understanding” of a group that trained, armed and equipped the Mumbai terrorists to engage in both targeted and indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people would be required to conclude that they are, indeed, terrorists themselves.

Then, of course, there is the difficult case of Hamas, which celebrated its 21st anniversary today. In some circles, the fact that an organization boasts of its terrorist exploits would be enough to justify calling it a “terrorist” organization. But the Times’ approach is considerably more subtle:

To the consternation of many, The Times does not call Hamas a terrorist organization, though it sponsors acts of terror against Israel. Hamas was elected to govern Gaza. It provides social services and operates charities, hospitals and clinics. Corbett said: “You get to the question: Somebody works in a Hamas clinic — is that person a terrorist? We don’t want to go there.” I think that is right.

Yeah, that's a tough one all right. It's a lot like when the Nazis were elected to govern Germany, and they provided all kinds of social services and sponsored cultural events and sports festivals. That created a situation that was just too ambiguous for our newspapers to deal with.

CNN: What is Chabad House?

Correction: Chabad shluchim are not missionaries. Missionaries convert someone from one state to another. Chabad shluchim make a Jew aware of who he or she already is and teach him how to reveal that.

Coverage of Mumbai terrorist attacks — Western media in all its glory

Oh, I am sorry, not “terrorist”. Militant. Freedom-fighter.

From PowerLine blog:

The New York Daily News profiles the American/Israeli rabbi and wife whose fate at the Chabad House in Mumbai was left hanging overnight. CNN reports that the bodies of five hostages have been found at the Chabad House. CNN describes the perpetrators as "militants." This morning FOX News was holding out the possibility that the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks are Hindu extremists. The willful blindness involved in the reportage is as striking as the news is tragic.

JOHN adds: Hindu "mujahadeen"? That would be a first.

UPDATE: Barry Shaw writes from Israel:

As the Indian terror event reaches it tragic end with reports of the killing of all the Jewish hostages in the Chabad House (Nariman House) there are important points that must be made. The marathon terror campaign was horrible and deadly. Despite in-depth coverage, its presentation in the Western world raises serious questions.

From the start British and American coverage concentrated on the hotels with stress of the targeting of British and Americans. The Jewish target was ignored until day two and day three. The two luxury hotels were selected by the terrorists because they are occupied by tourists. People who escaped from the hotels claimed that the terrorists asked for British and Americans. However, they were selected because they were foreigners.

Nariman House was selected by the terrorists because the Chabad building was a specific Jewish target that also included Israelis. Let me make this clear. Chabad House was the only target chosen by the terrorists in Mumbai because of its specific character - Jewish and Israeli. Hostages in Chabad House were killed because they were Jewish and Israeli.

Yet this terror venue was largely ignored by most of the Western media until the final day. We, in Israel, were able to follow events there because of the involvement of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Israeli media. Information from these and other sources was essential for me to relay reports to many people in Britain and the States who were unaware that Jews or Israelis were deliberate terror targets in Mumbai. When revealed, the final story of Chabad House will be tragic yet not properly covered by the world's media.

Shaw's message explicitly makes the points I left implicit in this post.

Sorry for the double-quote. Couldn’t help but include the whole post.

Am I surprised? Not at all.

See also this about a suspected gunman, holding a gun in his hands.

Media admits to kissing Obama’s ass

As previously reported, some journalists start beating their chests and admitting the fact that they, in fact, аre journalists and therefore have tendency to lie, commit slander, and twist facts, under-cover, over-cover, take things out context, blow them out of proportion, sweep them under the rug and do other things journalists in theory are not supposed to do, but in practice, have to do to stay in business (and receive personal and professional enjoyment from their work).

First, they admitted that Bush was unfairly treated. Now it’s about coverage of the campaign.

The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts.

Now, that’s just shocking news. Who could’ve expected a liberal socialist to be covered more by our unbiased media? I am just astounded.

Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Rather than watching “objective” liberal news channels that compare which of the candidates has the proper “looks” for a President, people should watch this:



Yes, yes, I know, rightist propaganda. That’s right (no pun intended… well, maybe). It is the propaganda of the conservatism — conservatism in thinking. Liberals think the following way: emotions rule intellect. Conservatives say the opposite: intellect rules emotions, particularly, in making decisions. You want to help poor? Fine. Do it — in intelligent way, no in an emotional knee-jerk-reflex style.

In his Kuntres U’Maayan, Rebbe Rashab (fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe) writes that even when somebody does good only with emotions, without intellect, he is no different from an animal. What separates a human being from an animal is ability to do everything — including helping others — with intellect. One sign of helping somebody without intellect is when help is given indiscriminately, even to those unworthy of it, or those whom this help would actually hurt. This help, says the Rebbe, comes from yetzer ha’rah, evil inclination which hijacked the initial motive to do good and turned it towards evil.

This is how liberalism works — an initially good motive is hijacked into irrational, ignorant thinking, and results in more negative than positive. Conservatism urges doing good with intellect. Applying a bandage on a cancer tumor is an example of liberalism. Doing a surgery (which from the outside looks aggressive and barbaric to someone who knows nothing about modern medicine) to cut out the tumor is an example of conservatism. (Of course, in case of economics, the best way to help is not touch the free market at all. Any attempt to “make things better where possible” in the economy, as Sarkozi put it, will make things only worse.)

Now watch the video above again. Propaganda of intelligence is not a bad thing. Propaganda of lies, ignorance and irrationality (even when styled as “objective reporting”) is.