Killing Jesus -- Again!

When I went to seminary in the late 1950s, one could already see the despoiling of American Protestantism by those would convert religion from the concern with social justice to a fast track to wealth and comfort. There were several figures working this track who would set the pattern for the new brand of fundamentalist comfort planning. One was Billy Graham who pressed 'making it big time' Christianity for all -- particularly Republicans such as Nixon and those who would follow in his train. Another is virtually forgotten now -- Norman Vincent Peale -- who lobbied for The Power of Positive Thinking (title of his principal book) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Vincent_Peale
which more or less expressed in its title his brand of self-serving theology.

Those of us who were students at Union Theological Seminary were appalled by these degenerate versions of Christianity. As students of such as Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr, we were earnestly concerned about social justice -- the suffering of those living in poverty (hunger for millions of American kids), the racism that dominated all features of the U.S. from education to opportunities to live a decent life. Niebuhr and other serious theologians found themselves locked in mortal combat with the degenerate expressions of Christianity which were emerging from the evangelical world which has always risked anti intellectual denial of things as they are and as they should be.

A whole batch of my fellow students at UTS began to see the handwriting on the wall and we went elsewhere in our lives. American Protestantism was going the way of many a religion that loses its intellectual foundations and thereby its basic moral rationale for existing. Those going into religion were increasingly becoming the ones who could not make it into law or medicine, but who were seeing religion as a route to success -- often extremely lucrative for its practitioners.

One can now see the upshot of that era if one tunes into those horrendous 'religious' programs featuring massive audiences laid in what look to be sports arenas. Joel Osteen was featuring this past Sunday precisely what I am talking about here. His sermon was literally on how to get a raise -- "not just fifty cents an hour but twenty dollars!" The secret is to tap god's storehouse of goodies that he has laid on for you -- if you only ask him nicely and contribute to the following web address a part of your gains:

http://joelosteen.lakewood.cc/site/PageServer?pagename=JOM_homepage

Sadly there are dozens of these characters making out big time. This particular one is from guess where and has what looks to be a tough minded wife who figured that she could turn him into a solid provider -- very solid.

It is sad for those of us who left a corrupted church who were the last wave of supporters of the social Gospel -- the belief that Jesus called upon people to assist all those in need, not just to figure a niche for making big bucks.

But so religions die and ours are going fast towards the same sort of oblivion that affected many of the ancient ones. In Europe they are far ahead of us in escaping such perils and getting on with caring for people. How sad that a nation founded by many hoping to find religious freedom in a new Israel has seen it spawn precisely the kinds of institutions that kill off good people -- not the least of whom back when being Jesus of Nazareth.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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The Great Satan

"Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, said the United States had known of the Basra operation in advance, suggesting a good deal of coordination between the United States and Iraq."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/world/middleeast/29iraq.html?th&emc=th

........................

Contrary to earlier reports that the Maliki attack on Basra came as a complete surprise to U.S. authorities, it is now obvious that we were in there at the start and possibly were the initiators. Such looks from this vantage point to be extraordinarily dangerous for all -- the Iraqis and our troops stationed in Iraq. How sad that a temporary period of relative peace has been disrupted by the urge once again to go to war. Killing people is wrong unless one has one hell of a good excuse for doing so. I do not see that here. I see a political maneuver to instill our troops in Iraq as long as possible with the hope of dominating the region from that base.

If one checks out what has been happening in Iraq, one finds that the moderates who might constitute the base of a democratic government -- the doctors and teachers at all levels -- have been fleeing the country to nearby states where they are at least safe from murder and kidnapping. Those left in control look to be self interested types who seek riches by dominating the 'others' in Iraq. Such a state of affairs is inherently unstable. Five million or so Sunnis have no wish to be dominated by 15 million Shiites. And the Kurds have moved out on their own amidst the chaos.

I don't see much in the way of a future for the remnants of people suffering there. The Mahdi army is made up of thousands of poor and angry young men, excluded from a safe and sane place in their society. They are well armed and have no incentive for going along to get along. We try paying them to join the army or police, but as all reports indicate one cannot trust those whom we are trying to convert into an set of mercenary forces working on our behalf as much, if not more than, their own.

Adequate words or images escape me here to describe this brutal world. It is certainly not Wonderland. Hell strikes me as being nearer to the core of things and we Americans as the great Satan.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Cheney Launches Iraqi Civil War?

It is hard to believe that V.P. Cheney's just completed tour of the Middle East was not involved either in launching the attack on Basra or in encouraging it with promised U.S. air support.

The results so far look to be disastrous the truce with the Mahdi army is now null and void. Iraq's three largest cities -- Baghdad, Basra, and Kut are battle grounds. The breakdown in the south also imperils the major route into Iraq for our troops and their supplies. The effects of the surge have been nullified. Maliki, a shaky national leader at best, is now apparently on the run. The bombings from on high by American rockets are by necessity indiscriminate and causing both civilian deaths and destruction of property. Presumably oil production mainly in the south will be disrupted along with other basic supply services of water and electricity.

It, indeed, looks as though our principal neocon has pulled the trigger once again with deadly consequences. Why should he do this? The answer is obvious. The principal figure demanding our exit from Iraq is Moktada al-Sadr. And the neocons are determined to maintain Iraq as our principal military base in the Middle East. We have been building a massive and vastly expensive new embassy base in Baghdad for that purpose.

One wonders whether Cheney has it all together. His fellow neocons have fled the scene -- some in disgrace (Wolfowitz, Perle, Fife, et al). Cheney feels that time is running out for his continuing dominance of the Bush administration. He sees no loss in a chaotic Iraq. Either a McCain will have to hold to his occupation scheme or Democrats determined to end the mess will have an even more difficult time extracting us from the mess. I suspect that this last gasp neocon disaster will cost McCain any serious chance to get elected. He has committed himself to maintaining our dominance in Iraq indefinitely and both the American economy and our military in general are now too stressed to carry out this nihilistic mission.

Perhaps others are pointing out the Cheney connection here. I have not seen it yet. Our media are practically brain washed to get along go along with our myopic military approach to Iraq. I find my sources on npr which in turn plays out the BBC information which usually runs a day or more ahead of our media in reporting such things.

At least the NY Times thing below gets part of the story today -- except they seem unable to count the number of major Iraqi cities in chaos -- three not two -- as the substance of the article reports.

........................................

Iraqi Army's Assault on Militias in Basra Stalls
By JAMES GLANZ
Fighting in two of Iraq's largest cities threatens to
destabilize a long-term truce that had helped reduce the
level of violence in the five-year-old war.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/27/world/middleeast/27iraq.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Violence Erupts in Southern Iraq

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/25/2198948.htm?section=justin

Maliki has moved to the Basra region in southern Iraq in an attempt to subdue an outbreak of violence between the militias there. The British have removed their troops from Basra and find themselves being targeted by rocket fire in their bases. If the three militias come to blows we may see an end of the temporary truce conditions in other parts of Iraq. We have been playing a dangerous game by supporting a Shiite government prone to ally itself with Iran while arming dissident Sunnis. We may now be seeing the breakdown of the relative decline in violence that we have been promoting with the surge. Oil is a big contention factor here as most of it in Iraq is either located in the south where this battle is raging or in the north where the Kurds are already exploiting it. Our troops may be now forced to try to contain a violent split up of Iraq with our guys caught in the middle of the battle lines.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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4 more Troops Killed Yesterday in Iraq = 4,000 Dead

Another four of our troops were blown away in their vehicle yesterday in southern Baghdad which brought the total dead in Iraq to 4,000. For daily specifics on our dead and wounded military there, check at

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Such information is generally played down by the Bush administration.We continued to play out this game in Viet Nam until we had reached 58,000 plus. We used to read the names of the dead at Riverside Church in hourly turns. Perhaps we should revive that practice? Some may recall that only the threat of drafting college and graduate students finally brought the anti-war efforts to a fruition. Our current dead and wounded represent only a small proportion of our communities which perhaps explains our general indifference to such horrors.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Our Current Minimum Wage Versus a Living Wage?

Varying by local rulings and costs of living, our minimum federal wage scale nowhere approaches the living wage estimates which run around $10.00 an hour for a family of four. The latest federal standards:

New Federal Minimum Wage:

$5.85 - July 24th, 2007
$6.55 - July 24th, 2008
$7.25 - July 24th, 2009

http://www.laborlawcenter.com/state-Minimum-Wage-rates.asp?gclid=CMKj58ydo5ICFQG5PAodWwLiQA

This disparity is sometimes closed somewhat by special programs such as food stamps and subsidized housing, but few of us these days don't know of people that are struggling desperately to maintain both food and energy obligations as well as such other essentials as basic medical care for their families. We have become a radically divided society with massive wealth at the top and hunger among millions (particularly children) at the bottom. Only America of the more than 20 most prosperous nations sentences its poorer citizens to premature deaths:

Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation
By ROBERT PEAR
Life expectancy for the nation as a whole has increased,
but the affluent have made greater gains, researchers said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/us/23health.html?th&emc=th

Some of the losers here, of course, are our many thousands of disabled heroes returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and denied adequate financial support and medical care by our stingy veterans' programs.

Greed is the dominant political and economic strategy oozing down from the Bush administration and its allies -- it is called trickle down economics, a misnomer if ever there was one. Give the super rich massive money breaks and they will spend their accesses on their poor neighbors? If you believe that we have a marvelous bridge to sell you in Brooklyn.

The fact of the matter is that we are a nation at a critical decision point. Our economy has been drained by the greedies by our pointless wars and cutting taxes at the precise time we should have been increasing those at the the top of the scale to fund our mad schemes for dominating the oil interests in the Middle East. Our oil companies have, of course, been making out like bandits and we have set up the world's most massive welfare queen operation in Iraq where the theft of billions of U.S. taxpayer monies is well documented. Some Iraqis will presumably favor keeping us around so long as the handouts come their way. But pretty obviously our own nation is suffering an economic melt down in the course of maintaining these greed based policies.

The bottom line here is that we should be evaluating our presidential candidates as to where they want the monies to go? I hear none of the 3 speaking about implementing a fair minimum wage nationally such as we once upon a time had. I well recall as a college student working a variety of blue college jobs with guys who were able to make it, buy a house, care for their families. That is why we college students took on such jobs summers to earn our tuitions. They paid well.

So check out your candidates. I don't think we can expect much from McCain. He is tied to the conservatives who are the source of our problems. Hillary looks to be more concerned with getting either herself of McCain elected. This leaves only Obama who has experienced poverty and who had spent most of his life working to assist people in need. I don't know whether he can afford to take on this minimum wage issue during his campaign. But were he and the Democrats to gain large support, they ought together to be able to turn our nation back towards economic justice. We will be hearing a number of the Republican propaganda slogans about 'big government' and such. But what one must watch is who wants to steer what monies towards whom. It's a pretty obvious choice. Either wars for profit and the corporations or all the rest of us who are struggling to survive. We had a comparable situation in 1929 and unfortunately Hoover was in office long enough to really sink our economy almost beyond repair until FDR -- himself quite wealthy -- came to office and rescued the vast numbers of Americans then being exploited by the super rich.

Let us hope for _real_ change come January 2009!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Jeremiah Wright -- Fine Tuning Racism?

Anyone who knows the Protestant tradition (and few these days seems to know the details of their own religions, let alone others') would be aware that Jeremiah Wright's preaching is directly in the tradition of hell fire and brimstone sermons deriving from the prophetic Biblical roots which not infrequently concerned injustices -- including the state of Israel itself -- suggesting that the wrath of g-d would descend on same -- so was in fact interpreted the Babylonian captivity when Israel was conquered and its elites taken off as hostages.

Add to this tradition the sense of injustice that African Americans have felt in this country where lynching continued well into the 20th century (and Wright's' formative theological years) and one must expect some condemnations -- yes, of the U.S., itself, the nation that has waged wars against small states by means foul as well as fair, e.g. destabilizations, assassinations, invasions and occupations of nations that threatened our economic (read corporate) interests. Look up United Fruit on Google, if one wants a sample.

Back a bit in history, this was the preaching style of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. He would stir up the congregation with angry stuff and then at the last moment pull back with a Christian appeal for forgiveness or whatever. I was at one of these and felt damned uncomfortable as one of the few whites there. Afterwards I told Powell how I had felt and he said, "but I didn't mean you." And apologized for having made me feel targeted.

I think this attack, however, is really directed at Obama -- the race card getting more finely tuned by Fox News and others who should know better.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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When We Lived in Harlem

Nearly a half century ago when we were graduate students at Columbia my wife and I moved into a housing project in West Harlem We had been invited to assist as part of a small program to help desegregate Grant Houses. We qualified financially for the program as typically impecunious grad students, but the program was soon discontinued in the face of quite accurate protests that we had been allowed to jump ahead on a long waiting list. The experience, however, for us was invaluable and we were able to pay back a bit even while living in Apt. 14G in 430 W. 125th St.

Our initial experience on moving in was almost comic. With the exception of one elderly women, all residents in this 21 story building were either African American or Latino/a. Thus, we were greeted with great suspicion by our neighbors. Children would literally flee if they found us in the elevators. Adults generally greeted us with stony expressions on their faces. We must somehow be spies for the project administrators -- possibly looking for an illegal man in an apartment? Families on welfare were still barred in those days from having an unemployed father and husband, if granted welfare support. After WW2 African American men who had moved up from the South to take war jobs in the area were routinely laid off to make room for the returning vets. And not much was available for minority men apart from pushing wagons around the garment district -- if they could get those jobs. This grim fact is never reported as one of the primary reasons for the breakdown of minority families. Midnight busts were going on from NYC to Poughkeepsie where I started teaching in 1963.

However, after about six months both we and our neighbors began to get used to each other. A man in an elevator explained one day that he was off to New Jersey where he kept his boat for fishing. We discovered a phone number where we could report that both elevators had gone out on the building Friday night often with the project staff away until Monday -- walking up 21 floors! One of the constant problems was druggies shooting up in the stairwells which made such walk ups a special experience. We complained and suggested that locks be installed on our unguarded entry doors with keys handed out to residents -- it was done a and the druggies disappeared. My wife represented us on the Democratic County Committee

The most significant breakthrough, however, came when we decided to get active on behalf of the Kennedy campaign in 1960. This led to a meeting with our building Democratic campaign captain, Lindsay Walcott, who invited us to join with him at the George Washington Carver Democratic club on 145th St. and Amsterdam Avenue. This happened to be the base of NYC's most powerful politician at that time, J. Raymond Jones, the "Harlem Fox." Ray had come to the states when the U.S. takeover of the Virgin Islands blocked his taking up the all Island scholarship that he had been awarded for higher education in Denmark. Instead he schlepped ice blocks up tenements stairs in Harlem. Ray was an incredible person -- dedicated, as we discovered, to getting Harlem "off the plantation." At that time, as so often happens, most of Harlem's pols were sellouts for crumbs off the table. Ray set about bringing in honest men and so the now vaunted big four entered political office at Ray's urging -- Basil Patterson, David Dinkins, Charlie Rangel, Percy Sutton. The first time Charlie ran for office I had become Ray's aide and could tell an amusing tale or two about Charlie's horror at the way campaigns were run in those days.

But back in time to our arrival at Ray's club. There was only one other non African American family there -- the Seaveys who did money lending. We found ourselves facing the same suspicions that we had first met in the project. Why else could we be there than to make out somehow. People simply did not believe that we were committed Democrats and also much concerned with achieving civil rights for all. It really took about 2 full years for people to begin to trust us and Ray invited us to run for the board off the club. When we could not put down the necessary $25.00 deposit to do so, he covered it for us.

What became obvious was that Ray was the prime reformer not only of politics in Harlem but also of educational opportunity for all. He was working with Kenneth Clark, the noted CCNY psychologist who had done the doll studies indicating that African America little girls preferred white dolls which in turn influenced the Court in the Brown desegregation decision. It was quite ironic to have alleged reform pols from downtown approaching Ray with hopes of doing dirty deals while Ray was working behind the scenes with any and all -- some of the decent labor leaders of those days and others -- to fulfill the dreams that perhaps he had had to abandon when his scholarship was scrapped. I was sometimes his liaison here and there for some of these efforts -- to the chancellor of the City University of New York which was under Ray's stimulus to expand the number of its colleges throughout the city to make real educational opportunities ("open enrollment") available to all able and willing to pursue them. Sadly free tuition would soon be scrapped as would the full reality of open admissions. But the starting point was with Ray who saw that we needed to open the doors to the children of working people of all backgrounds (thus our strong blue collar union support). Thus, he formed a union/minority alliance that worked!

This is hastily done with a busy day and week ahead. Perhaps it gives a bit of the flavor of things back then. We hated to leave Grant Houses where we had made a warm home, but were obliged to do so by my employers at Vassar who were not so warmly disposed towards our concerns. We have, however, maintained our ties with Harlem since (where my wife several months ago received awards from all our local pols from Charlie Rangel down for her stellar efforts in directing monies into the community from resistant NYC administrations. I enjoyed the happiest of careers teaching incredible students in CUNY whose consequent careers and contributions to society continue to amaze me. It all began at 430 W. 125th St., Apt. 14G.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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The Myth of Al Qaeda in Iraq

[The excerpt from an article in today's NY Times below tells it as it is -- there is serious doubt that the attacks on Americans and among Iraqis are anything but the result of endemic corruption there and the desperate measures being taken by competing groups to survive and dominate others. Needless to say our media are telling us less and less about such things. The Iraq story has been a patch of lies from the onset when we were induced to launch our murderous (and illegal war) under the malignant influence of our neocons. The tactic being used here is that devised by the Nazis. It was known as the Big Lie. Tell the same lies over and over again and people begin to believe them. Note the long list that has been devised to deceive our general public:

1) Hussein launched 9/11.

2) Hussein was an agent of al Qaeda.

3) We have won the war.

4) We have brought democracy to Iraq.

5) The surge has brought peace to Iraq.

6) We have to stay in Iraq to win the war there.

The list goes on and this is not exhaustive.

There is a bit of the truth exposed in the paragraphs below, but I doubt that you will find much of this reported, let alone, repeated on our cable news networks now obsessed with domestic violence rather than the deadly war that is killing and maiming multitudes of both Americans and Iraqis. Will we celebrate soldier #4,000 who gives his life for this pointless excursion into the fantasy world of our president and his honchos? This date should be coming up soon. Only 12 more to go:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gqgQCcv26kB1dkgZRZNHmbn_1J8gD8VE6DI00

Ed Kent]

............................


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/world/middleeast/16insurgent.html?th&emc=th

The Motivations of Insurgents

Some American officials and politicians maintain that Sunni insurgents have deep ties with Qaeda networks loyal to Osama bin Laden in other countries. Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, whose members are mainly Iraqi but whose leadership has been described by American commanders as largely foreign, remains a well-financed and virulent force that carries out large-scale attacks.

But there are officers in the American military who openly question how much a role jihadism plays in the minds of most people who carry out attacks. As the American occupation has worn on and unemployment has remained high, these officers say the overwhelming motivation of insurgents is the need to earn a paycheck.

Nor do American officers say they believe that insurgent attacks are centrally coordinated. “As far as networked coordination of attacks, we are not seeing that,” said a military official familiar with studies on the insurgency.

Opposition to the occupation and fear of the Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated government and security forces “clearly are important factors in the insurgency,” the official said. “But they are being rivaled by the economic factor, the deprivation that exists.”

Maj. Kelly Kendrick, operations officer for the First Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division in Salahuddin, estimates that there are no more than 50 hard-core “Al Qaeda” fighters in Salahuddin, a province of 1.3 million people that includes Baiji and the Sunni cities of Samarra and Tikrit.

He said most fighters were seduced not by dreams of a life following Mr. bin Laden, but by a simpler pitch: “Here’s $100; go plant this I.E.D.”

“Ninety percent of the guys out here who do attacks are just people who want to feed their families,” Major Kendrick said.

The First Brigade’s commander, Col. Scott McBride, concurs. “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard one person say, ‘I believe in a caliphate,’ ” he said.

Abu Azzam, a prominent leader of American-backed Sunni militiamen in Nasr Wa Salam, between Baghdad and Falluja, estimated that only 10 percent of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia’s members adhered to extremist jihadist doctrines.

“Many joined Qaeda for financial and personal reasons,” said Abu Azzam, whose militia includes former insurgents. “The others joined Qaeda because they hate the government, or they hate the American army, or for revenge.”

The focus on Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia obscures the activities of other major guerrilla groups in the country. Some, like Jaish-e-Muhammad, or the Army of Muhammad, which includes ex-Baathists and former military officers, continue to battle American forces. Some American officers consider another organization, the Islamic State of Iraq, to be a front group for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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The Seeds of Hate?

[I know Khalid Amayreh as a man of peace.

http://www.p4pd.org/lifestories1.html

But I see him becoming so embittered by the brutal treatment of his fellow Palestinians that I am almost reluctant to post his angriest comments. However, I think we must face up to the rage that the conflict in Israel/Palestine is generating on both sides that is defeating peace-making efforts there. I have no solution to such a state of affairs which so often arises in wartime. I well recall how many decades it took to end my hatred of the Nazis and by extension Germans after the end of WW2.

For the ancients their gods were the leaders off to war -- but now? The seeds of hate . . . ? Ed Kent]

Ed Kent]



The Rabbi of hate
[ 05/03/2008 - 01:23 AM ]

Palestinian newborn, killed on tuesday by the IOF

Comment by Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank



""So I believe that I act in the spirit of the Almighty God. By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, 1924

""A thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail" Dov Lior, Rabbi of Kiryat Arba

"We will carry out a greater holocaust against the Palestinians," Matan Vilnai, Deputy Defense Minister, 1 March, 2008

Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, which represents Jews from the Middle East, has urged Jews around the world to pray for Israeli soldiers, not only on the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, but also on Mondays and Thursdays.

According to the Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, Yosef told his followers that Israeli soldiers need to be blessed by the Almighty for killing and maiming hundreds of Palestinians, mostly innocent civilians, in the past few days.

"Had it not been for them, would we have time to study the Torah? To turn the books," Yosef was quoted as saying Saturday night during his weekly sermon in Jerusalem.

It is really lamentable that Yosef thinks that it is only through murder and genocide of Palestinians that Jews can sit down and study the Torah.

Jews, after all, have been and are studying the Torah for many centuries without "Jewish soldiers" engaging themselves in mass murder, mass terror and mass oppression. Does the rabbi think that linking Torah studies to mass murder in Gaza brings honor to the Torah and to Judaism?

Yosef, who on several occasions called Palestinians "rats," is considered by many in Israel as one of the greatest living sages of the Torah. However, his enthusiastic support for ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinians caricatures a callous man who quotes ancient texts to justify every conceivable crime against humanity and every abomination against God and man.

Yosef is not unaware of the Nazi-like atrocities the soldiers he is blessing have committed and are committing in Gaza.

He knows too well that an army that murders innocent civilians, including babies in their mothers' laps, is not an army of righteous soldiers, but rather an army of thugs and criminals, not unlike the Gestapo and SS and wehrmacht.

I understand that some Zionist rabbis tend to believe in the horrible idea that in war time, there is no such a thing as "innocent civilians of the enemy." In other words, "All's fair in love and war."

But this is a stunningly immoral concept that degrades man to cannibalistic savagery. Because then every mass murderer from Adolph Hitler, to Joseph Stalin, to Ariel Sharon, to Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak could justify the mass murder of civilians on the ground that in wartime, no holds are barred. Indeed, this would be the most comfortable justification for all the holocausts, genocides, pogroms and inquisitions in the world since Adam and Eve.

Well, I really wonder how these rabbis of evil, people such Yosef, Dov Lior, David Batsri, and many many others, would react if a Nazi apologist argued that the mass killings of Jews during the holocaust was a perfectly justified and legitimate act "since we viewed European Jewry as our number-1 enemy, and we were at war, and in wartime there is no such a thing as innocent civilians of the enemy."

Now, what is the difference between a rabbi praying for and blessing an army that has just murdered and maimed hundreds of innocent people in Gaza , and a German Nazi priest praying for and blessing Nazi killers who had just carried out one of those pacification raids in central or Eastern Europe?

Does the rabbi think that a holocaust by Jews is kosher? Does he think that non-Jewish children and women and men are un-human, or lesser humans? What kind of Torah is he studying? What kind of God is he praying to? Does he think that the Torah prohibition against murder covers only "Jews"?

Rabbi Yosef is more than just an unenlightened old man; he is actually an evil man. He is evil because in the name of the Torah and in the name of Judaism, he tries to make evil look good, ugliness look fair and cardinal sins against God and man look as great acts of charity.

It is really hypocritical that while many Zionists don't stop denouncing Catholic religious leaders for supporting the Third Reich and for keeping silent in the face of the Holocaust, rabbis, even prominent rabbis, such as Yosef, are more of less indulging in the same evil behavior they are denouncing.

Yosef may be a learned man in matter of Jewish theology. But he seems to be a dwarf in understanding the moral messages of the Torah. Because if he were truly faithful to the true spirit of Judaism, he should realize that murdering innocent people-non-Jews as well as Jews- is the greatest crime under the sun.

Doesn't he read "Thou Shall not murder"? Doesn't he read "thou shall not oppress?" Is this his way of making "Tikkun Ha'olam," or fixing the world, by blessing and encouraging child killers and mass murderers?

It is sad how men of religion who think they are hallowing the name of God are actually doing Satan's work.

And we wonder why the world is in such a mess!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Bush and Cheney Versus Fallon!

[It is no secret that Cheney favors an attack on Iran. We may be facing national disaster along these lines before the unholy pair are out of office. Cheney at last report is heading over there at this moment. Many reports have warned that an attack on Iran could stimulate massive retaliation -- against our fleet and military over committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush's most recent statements about liberty and divine sanction of his role as Commander in Chief are downright scary.

Fallon has argued for discussions with Iran rather than war and a reduction of our troops in Iraq. Ed Kent]

.........................................

Mideast Commander Retires After Rankling Bosses
By THOM SHANKER
Adm. William J. Fallon's public statements on Iran seemed
to put him at odds with the Bush administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/washington/12military.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Dark Days in NY

It has been a rough, cold winter for us here in NY. We did not need the last bit of ugly news -- that our governor known as a spirited reformer -- actually has been maintaining a standing account for his regular engagements with lovely young things at about $5000.00 a pop. It looks like this guy may become one of the residents of our many NY prisons as the financial details of his dealings begin to emerge as IRS fraud.

I will never forget the look of sadness on his wife's face as she stood beside him while he confessed his crime -- some of it that is. My heart goes out to his 3 daughters as well. How can they live a lifetime in the shadow of his shame?

What really gets to me is the American hypocrisy that seems to be all around us that makes lovely young women fair game. I recall as a teen suddenly discovering that the pattern of exploitation of young women was so deeply embedded in our culture and was socially acceptable if kept within discreet limits. I watch the constant use of ads exploiting lovely young bodies -- many of them prepubescent! There is something deeply sick in our culture that persuades so many that our young ones should be so abused.

I will never forget the day that I was walking across Manhattan when a beautiful young teen in a flaming red dress stopped me, I thought to ask directions, but it turned out to invite me to sleep with her at a price. I was stunned and muttered a startled "No thank you" as she continued on her way. She was, I assume, one of the hundreds of thousands of American run aways who had been snared by a pimp on arriving at NYC.

There is no way presumably to halt these atrocities. But perhaps calling them precisely that -- ATROCITIES -- might give some such as Spitzer pause. This guy should never show his fact in public again and should be condemned by all who encounter him. NO EXCUSES!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Misunderstandings That Kill

Richard Price's most recent book, Lush Life, centers on the diverse communities on the Lower East Side who simply do not comprehend each other. A son of prosperity needlessly dies because he makes a stupid movie comment when faced with a gun stuck in his face by a project kid.

Price's point is that too many of our well off are living in movie and TV land, not in the real world that can kill if one gets it wrong.

Actually a real life version of this killing occurred a decade or so ago when and Columbia grad student and his girl friend were held up by a kid who responded when a bullet when the grad student wise mouthed, "Don't you want the dollar you dropped." It bounced off a wall into his skull.

One cannot wonder whether the U.S. has been living in a comparable la-la land with its wars over there fought by guys and young women who signed up with the military as a job, not a death trap. I had a daughter doing military service for medical training who got out just in time to do her studies as a civilian (prior to 9/11)).

One does not have the sense that either the smiling faces on our TV screens or others who may even have some reservations about the war realize that we are killing towards our second hundred thousand over there and are bringing home 40% of our troops disabled -- total who have been fighting there working towards the second million. See Joseph E. Stiglitz estimate that our wars will cost us 3 trillion -- TRILLION, NOT BILLION!!! [The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict with Linda J. Bilmes, WW Norton, March 2008]: http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/

And so -- where lies reality?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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No More Below the Belt Stuff!

I gather from the latest presidential poll results that the competition between Clinton and Obama is likely to continue:

http://www.usaelectionpolls.com/

I hope neither Democrat will provide campaign footage for McCain and the Republicans generally by mounting ugly TV ads and making snide comments about the other. I can imagine that Hillary was stunned to have a competitor come from nowhere to challenge her hold on a presidential nomination. But that is no excuse for ugly attack ads that merely appeal to Republican scare tactics. Presumably anyone elected to the presidency will have a number of obvious challenges with which to cope. And presumably competent people will be appointed to deal with them. I doubt a 3 a.m. phone call that can't be dealt with. If memories are short, on 9/11 Bush was stunned and stuck with the kiddies while Cheney ordered (illegally) that air liners heading towards the nation's capital be shot down. Fortunately our jets could not scramble fast enough to shoot down any innocent planes.

Let's get real!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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A Nuclear Iran?

Let us imagine that Iran has acquired a nuclear weapon. What can it possibly do with it? If it fires it at Israel it will face a massive nuclear counter attack. Even if it caught Israel totally off guard it would be subjecting its own and virtually all the other Muslim nations in the Middle East -- Lebanon, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, etc. etc. to the dreadful nuclear fallout from the prevailing winds. See the map of the Middle East if in doubt:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.flag-zone.com/img/continent/middle-east/map.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.flag-zone.com/continent/middle-east/&h=97&w=129&sz=12&tbnid=koQ055q9lhkJ:&tbnh=97&tbnw=129&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=1&ct=image&cd=3

If this website does not come up, simply Google Map of the Middle East.

I am not arguing that we should not counsel Iran not to develop nuclear weapons. As we have seen from the Israeli attack on a supposed nuclear site in Syria and its devastation of Lebanon, that it would most likely be the first to direct a major attack on its supposed threatening enemy.

One can imagine a scenario at 3 a.m. with a call to the White House:

"Hi, Hillary/Barack/John, this is Ben and I have some bad news -- we have top secret information that Iran is about to nuke our major cities. Do you have any objections to us launching a preemptive strike?"

What do you suppose Hillary/Barack/John would answer?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Palestinians Are Not Roaches!

[Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world. Rockets and other weapons of war targeted at it inevitably kill innocent civilians imprisoned in this hell hole. Sanity calls for direct truce talks between Israel and Hamas moderated by the outside powers that have been tolerating the slaughter there. The cost to Gazans is life and limb. The cost to Israel is loss of respect for it -- a marauding nation killing and tormenting a captive people.

Unhappily our presidential campaigners are terrified at offending the Israeli lobby. Ironically a majority of American Jews and Muslims and and those living in Israel/Palestine would welcome intervention to halt the horrors that are unfolding there. If no one has the courage to intervene in this murderous mayhem, the end of the road can only be massive disruption in the Middle East -- and most likely some where down the line the violent destruction of Israel, itself --` a 21st Century Holocaust!!!

Ed Kent]

.......................

Israel Takes Gaza Fight to Next Level in a Day of Strikes
By STEVEN ERLANGER and TAGHREED EL-KHODARY
Israeli forces killed at least 54 people in northern Gaza
in the deadliest day of fighting in more than a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/02/world/middleeast/02mideast.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Israel warns of Gaza invasion

[This looks to be a potential blood bath and, thus, disaster for all in the making. There is such a word as 'truce'! Ed Kent

.......................................

Israel warns of Gaza invasion
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/64923BAE-53B0-4DFE-9124-ABA5A96CD4D8.htm
Aljazeera.net - Qatar
Ehud Barak told Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, and David Miliband,
the British foreign minister, in phone conversations that Israel would step ...
See all stories on this topic
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ncl=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/64923BAE-53B0-4DFE-9124-ABA5A96CD4D8.htm
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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