Am I being anti-semitic -- or just being anti-injustice?

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Saturday July 04, 2009 · 4:12 PM PDT

2009/07/04 · 16:12

I recently posted a rather funny (I thought) satirical article in my diary that declaimed (tongue in cheek) America's policy of giving subsidies to Israel and Wall Street but not giving subsidies to Americans who have had their homes foreclosed on. So the Daily Kos gave me a warning that I was being anti-semitic. And I have no way to contest that ruling either. That's unfair.

What if, after hearing that I've been judged to be anti-semitic, the 1.2 million people who read the Daily Kos might think that I actually am. I'm not anti-semitic. I'm not against Jews. I'm against Wall Street bailouts and mulit-billion-dollar fiscal support for Israeli neo-cons who have destroyed approximately 20,000 Arab and Christian Palistinian homes in the last nine years in order to replace them with modern condos -- which anyone in the world can claim and move into just by telling Israeli neo-cons that they are Jewish.

That's not anti-semitic. That's anti-injustice.

Poll

188 votes Show Results

Is Jane being anti-semitic? Or not?

188 votes Vote Now!

Is Jane being anti-semitic? Or not?

Even though she didn't intend to be anti-semitic, it could be taken that way

38 votes

No, Jane was just pointing out injustices

86 votes

the pro-Israel lobby is trying to discount Jane's article because they think that people actually read her and that Israel might lose its housing subsidy if they do

19 votes

This article isn't about religion. This article is about Americans getting screwed by elected representatives who don't represent US

45 votes

The price of one ICBM: 386,250 dinners at Chez Panisse!

jpstillwater

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Saturday June 27, 2009 · 4:39 PM PDT

2009/06/27 · 16:39

What is the most prestigious status symbol there is? A 20-karat diamond necklace? A Rolls Royce? A mansion in Beverly Hills? Nope. An Intercontinental Ballistic Missile is the absolutely most prestigious thing. Just ask anyone who owns one. ICBMs are hot!

I wanna own an ICBM. THEN people will like me. Where can I buy one? How much do they cost?

According to John Clay, a missile expert at Northrup-Grumman, "The last ICBM [system] cost $100 billion, in current dollars." And according to an official U.S. Navy website, the unit cost for one Lockheed Trident is 30.9 million dollars. Guess I'm going to have to save up.

And speaking of prestigious things, me and my daughter Ashley and my son Joe splurged bigtime last night and went out to dinner at that famous gourmet French restaurant in north Berkeley -- Chez Panisse. We had three things to celebrate: My birthday, Father's Day (Joe's a dad), and the recent settlement of my lawsuit against the Department of Defense.

jpstillwater

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Wednesday June 24, 2009 · 11:50 AM PDT

2009/06/24 · 11:50

"What should I do about my IRA?" wailed my friend Jim. "If I leave it in a CD in the bank, it's only going to earn seven-elevenths of a percent in interest. But if I try to make it earn more by buying stocks and bonds with it, I could stand to lose it all -- not to mention having to pay stock brokers' fees. However, if I just let it sit in the bank and do nothing, inflation might eat it all up. But if I take it out and buy gold and silver instead -- or even just store it under my mattress -- then I lose up to 33% of it to income taxes, the second it stops being an IRA."

Jim, your IRA is screwed.

Remember back in the day when IRAs seemed like a good thing, wherein Jim didn't have to pay taxes on his income then -- because he could pay taxes on it later, perhaps after Clinton's peace dividend kicked in and taxes went down? Who would have thought that "later" was going to cause all these problems? The financial good times were rolling. "'Later" seemed like a good thing. "Later" seemed really safe.

jpstillwater

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Monday June 22, 2009 · 7:47 AM PDT

2009/06/22 · 07:47

I just finished reading an article about Afghanistan in the Huffington Post. Although its author, Stewart Nusbaumer, was mostly referring to Afghanistan in the article, what he said also appears to apply to all modern warfare, including various wars fought by Israel -- thus giving me some insights into why Israel lost its war in Lebanon two years ago, why it is losing its war in Palestine right now and why it most likely will lose any future war it might declare on Iran.

According to Nusbaumer, "Not everyone, of course, but many, including many in our government and the military, are finally realizing guns and bombs are of limited utility in winning modern wars. ...Slowly, incrementally, reluctantly, haltingly, a different thinking on how to fight modern wars has gained acceptance. These new ideas existed in Vietnam, but General Westmoreland ran the show, and he adhered to the old thinking rooted in World War II." Nusbaumer then goes on to surmise that the old World War II strategies don't work any more. Running up a body count just doesn't work. Nowadays, winning wars is all about winning hearts and minds.

Hearts and minds.

jpstillwater

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Saturday June 20, 2009 · 10:58 PM PDT

2009/06/20 · 22:58

Usually the Left's POV is pretty cut and dried. We are for healthcare, against Republican hypocrite perverts, for Chavez, against waterboarding, etc. But I STILL don't know who the good guys and the bad guys are in Iran.

Chavez says that the Iranian protest is just another "Color Revolution". Petras claims that Ahmadinejad truly does have the support of the salt-of-the-earth people in the countryside. The Guardian claims that Mosauvi is practically the next George Washington. So. Who exactly is right, er, I mean, Left? And will this be the issue (aside from Obama of course) that tears the Left apart?

If Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, had wished to show that the state could be responsive, he would have avoided the harsh language he used yesterday at the Friday prayer meeting at Tehran university. He would have said, or at least hinted, that the election results could be reconsidered. He would not have threatened demonstrators. He would not have attacked foreign powers. He would, in short, have faced up to the fact that his problem is that huge numbers of Iranians will not accept his mere assertion that the results were genuine. If he ever had that kind of authority, he does not have it now. They deem him to be a liar.

jpstillwater

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Friday June 19, 2009 · 7:45 PM PDT

2009/06/19 · 19:45

Here's an interesting link to another view of Iran's "stolen election". Having recently gone on a Rick-Steves-style tour of Iran, I myself am not really sure what to think about the election results. But this guy puts up a really good argument for Ahmadinejad having won the election legitimately.

Here's the link: Iranian Elections: The ‘Stolen Elections’ Hoax, By James Petras, Axis of Logic, Thursday, Jun 18, 2009: Here's an interesting quote:

In general, Ahmadinejad did very well in the oil and chemical producing provinces. This may have be a reflection of the oil workers’ opposition to the ‘reformist’ program, which included proposals to ‘privatize’ public enterprises.

jpstillwater

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Wednesday June 17, 2009 · 1:52 PM PDT

2009/06/17 · 13:52

After looking at a map of Palestine's West Bank, you might start to wonder what the Palestinians are all complaining about. They still have lots of land over there. There's plenty of room for them. What's the big deal?

The big deal is that these maps only offer us the appearance that Palestinians have lots of land. These maps are only for show. The reality of land distribution in the Occupied Territories is pretty much different from what you see on a map. Should you actually pack up your bags, fly off to the Tel Aviv airport, cross through all the IDF military checkpoints and finally arrive in Palestine, you will immediately see that hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements are taking up more and more prime property all over the West Bank.

Looking at a map of Palestine is like looking at a bowl of macaroni and cheese. If you weren't actually poking around in the stuff with your fork, you might get the false idea that the whole thing is just made up of cheese. But when you actually bite into your food, you immediately discover that it's mostly macaroni.

jpstillwater

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Tuesday June 16, 2009 · 9:44 AM PDT

2009/06/16 · 09:44

Can you believe it? Legislators here in California have just canceled our state's dental insurance program. And you know what that means. If you can't afford to pay over a thousand dollars per tooth for fillings, root canals and crowns, you are not going to have any more teeth.

Five or ten years from now, everyone in California who can't afford the high cost of dental work is going to have rotting, rotten and/or missing teeth. Eeuuww!

By approximately 2015, you are going to be able to walk down any street in California (except perhaps Rodeo Drive) and almost nobody will be smiling. Why not? Because all of us who can no longer afford to have our teeth cleaned and our cavities filled are going to be afraid to open our mouths -- for fear of exposing our bare gums and hitting you with dragon breath!

jpstillwater

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Monday June 15, 2009 · 9:24 AM PDT

2009/06/15 · 09:24

After Barack Obama got elected and we didn't have to deal with George Bush any more, I honestly thought that I could finally relax and take a holiday from intense vexation and frustration with our government -- but no. I'm still fighting mad. I'm still pissed off enough to chew nails. And I'm still out for blood. And it's still High Noon during America's battle for representative government. And as Markos Moulitsus Zuniga once said, "You don't bring a spork to a gunfight." Trust me, I won't.

According to the Baltimore Chronicle, Senator Max Baucus of Montana has received almost two million dollars from healthcare lobbyists alone -- $1,826,652 to be exact. I could live like a princess for the rest of my life on that amount! "Corporate health profiteers who invested in Baucus will now benefit from his stewardship over health care reform," stated the Chronicle. "His 2008 donations from health care profiteers included: Insurance: $592,185; Health Professionals: $537,141; Pharmaceuticals/Health Products: $524,813; Health Services/HMOs: $364,500; Hospitals/Nursing Homes: $332,826. That is $1,826,652 Baucus took from these industries."

jpstillwater

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Sunday June 14, 2009 · 8:08 PM PDT

2009/06/14 · 20:08

A friend of mine who is really worried about the coming Great Depression just decided that he was going to go out and buy gold. "Wanna come along?" he asked me. You bet!

First we googled around to get information. http://Kitco.com is best site on the web to look for information on gold -- or at least it's my favorite. I love checking gold prices on Kitco and reading rants by the Mogambo Guru and gold tips from the Daily Pfennig. Kitco also has gold for sale and their prices are reasonable -- but here's the deal-breaker. They also charge a $30.00 shipping fee plus a few more dollars for insurance. The result is that although they listed their gold price today at $960 an ounce, because of their shipping and handling costs, you end up paying $1,014 an ounce.

RSS

Am I being anti-semitic -- or just being anti-injustice?

The price of one ICBM: 386,250 dinners at Chez Panisse!

Withdraw now or later: Either way, your IRA is screwed

It's the body count, stupid: Why Israel is losing the war in Palestine

You can't tell the players without a program: Color revolution in Iran -- or not?

Possible Iran "stolen election" hoax?

Crafty: Israel's macaroni-and-cheese approach to Palestine

California: Famous for its rotting teeth & lack of insight

Breach of Promise: Sen. Baucus just ditched America at the altar

Sovereigns, eagles & bars: My adventures in buying gold