Chit Chat

By Ted Belman

From now on comments on every post must relate to the content of the post.

Comments that don’t relate to the post must go here.

Any person who contravenes this demand will be put on moderation. Also their offending comment will be trashed.

The reason for this demand is so that people who want to read comments which pertain to the post, don’t have to wade through the chatter.

Everyone will be happier.

April 16, 2020 | 8,673 Comments »

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50 Comments / 8673 Comments

  2. I should have said the nine days of Chanukha because, since I’m so concerned about fire hazard in an apartment, I don’t even have a stove. I lit a battery operated menorah and you know, it was the most miraculous thing, the batteries lasted for 8 days! But then, what with the war still on and the hostages still missing, and it looked just so pretty, I just didn’t feel like turning it off yet, so I procrastinated by a day, so sue me. 😀

  3. @Michael I found her article

    https://www.independent.org/news/article.asp?id=13983

    And I was reminded of a triple biblical joke I recently came up with during the 8 days of Chanukha:

    I quipped that the sin of Moses hitting the rock instead of talking to it for which God punished him by forbidding him from entering the promised land for ruining the miracle by providing a possible scientific explanation for the water coming out of the rock ( Numbers 20) was understandable, the punishment, that is, since, I mean, if you were a magician and your assistant exposed the trick to the audience, making it impossible to suspend disbelief, would you invite her to the cast party afterward?

    Though this would never work today, what with bluetooth and all, since people would expect him to say, “Alexa, bring forth water.”

    I said this to an old guy, also Jewish, at the gym, who said, no, the sin was smashing the tablets. Well, I looked it up (Exodus 32,34) and God didn’t mind, he just said replace them, go up the mountain and God would write on them again.

    And here, we see the birth of modern medicine and the pharmaceutical industry because – wait for it –

    God said:

    “Make new tablets and call on me in the morning.” 😀

  4. Sebastien,

    My favorite “gallows humor”, in honor of Purim, would be seeing Amerioca’s and Israel’s traitors swinging from their own gallows.

    These are exceptional times. I have never, in my 75 years, seen so much raw hatred of Jews in the US. Naomi Wolf says the world today, especially since the beginning of the Plandemic, with its self-hatred, reverse racism, rampant ignorance of history and reality, transgenderism and other abominations, cannot be explained away by any conventional wisdom. It is what she calls “palpable evil”. Seeing it led her to accept the reality of “palpable good”, in the form of a loving God reaching out to thosse who trust in Him.

    “We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.” – George Orwell [900×478]

    https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fdwwc04vt7ml51.jpg

  5. @Michael Seriously. Tell me about it! “it’s deja vu all over again.” – the ever profound Yogi Berra.

    Another Yogi Berraism that fits in the context of the er the IDF commander who decided he could wait until morning to report accelerated Hamas activitiy on the border:

    “Excuse me, do you have the time?

    “You mean now?”

    “I love the smell of gallows humor in the morning (well afternoon actually, evening in Israel, but who’s counting)”. – Je

  6. @Reader

    In 2009, the Tavor X95 (also known as the Micro Tavor or MTAR) was selected by the Israel Defense Forces to gradually replace the M16 assault rifle and M4 carbine variants as the standard-issued weapon of the Israeli infantry by the end of 2018. The first X95 bullpup rifles were issued to infantry units in 2013.[6] A report published on the IDF’s website revealed the IDF plans to continue acquiring the Micro Tavor and equipping combat units with it.[

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWI_Tavor#:~:text=In%202009%2C%20the%20Tavor%20X95,by%20the%20end%20of%202018.

    “ISRAEL ACQUIRING ADDITIONAL IWI MICRO-TAVOR RIFLES
    25 Jun 2023
    Defence Equipment News”

    https://www.joint-forces.com/defence-equipment-news/65206-israel-acquiring-additional-iwi-micro-tavor-rifles

    Israel makes better stuff

    “The Micro-TAVOR rifle has been in IDF active duty and reserves service since 2006. Its bullpup configuration platform creates an ergonomic and short firearm with a long barrel, giving it superior ballistics compared to other platforms.

    The current order is for the 5.56x45mm calibre Micro-TAVOR with a 380mm and 419mm – barrel length. The firearm is equipped with M-1913 Picatinny rails enabling the mounting of essential accessories such as sights, lights, and visual and IR illuminators necessary for modern warfare. This order joins previous IWI contracts for the IDF, such as the Negev LMG (light machine gun) and the 40mm grenade launcher that can be mounted on to the Micro-TAVOR rifle.”

    ibid

  9. @Reader Thank you. @Ted I think Reader’s article would be valuable to repost. This has been a horrible pattern ever since Oslo. Truly liberal fascism.

    “FLASHBACK: Exposé written 24 years ago shows this isn’t first time official Israeli acquiescence in Islamic attack preparations draws scrutiny
    Report on the Acquiescence of the Israeli Government in Palestinian Authority First Strike Preparations in Judea and Samaria”

    https://www.frontline.news/post/flashback-expose-written-24-years-ago-shows-this-isnt-first-time-official-israeli-acquiescence-in-islamic-attack-preparations-draws-scrutiny

  15. SEBASTIEN-
    You still have not explained what “Bergen” is. And what is kdrama. ??
    And how do you bring Felix into this. He is not anything but an honest poster, unlike yourself who often has a- blunt- axe to grin, and no grindstone handy.

    Also what the hell is Edamame.
    Edam is a pretty good cheese, a lot better than your cheesy obscure remarks,

    I’m glad you told us that you were “educated”, I’d never have known otherwise, but, Kol Mazal, enjoy it and use it to better yourself, say… to become a good musician-some day. Instead of wasting your time watching inane TV crap, and worse, bringing it to us on this site.

    I have not _yet_ descended to your low of “parodying” on my name. But I can. You picked an unfortunate one.

  18. greenwald is an antisemite and a liar who hates Israel, America, and Trump. The tablet article is wrong to say he’s not an antisemite because he also hates America. They usually go together. I’ll never forget the time a pro-Palestinian student from New Zealand came up to me in a restaurant and began screaming, “Americans ought to be gassed.” I had to barricade myself in the bathroom.

  19. Wikipedia is the greatest encyclopedia ever devised and a reliable source. I have quoted passages that prove its lack of bias. I know how to extract relevant quotes with citations because I am an educated person.

  21. SEBASTIEN-
    Your terse comments often are as meaningless and as obtuse as those of more than one other member. Who or what is “Bergen”. Are you a pal of Charlie McCarthy????

    Your comments seem to come from the same kind of head.

    Why constantly cut ^ Paste whole blocks from WiKi, to give us pleasure. We get none, and could read it ourselves without you as an intermediary.
    IF we were interested enough, which is doubtful.

    P.S. I know abut Sanger and Wales, particularly Wales.

    Curious….Is Zionism your 5th or 6th religion???

  22. @Ted “The use of incendiary weapons in civilian areas is not violating Article 2 of the 1980 Protocol on Incendiary Weapons, which prohibits only the use of air-delivered incendiary bombs in close vicinity of concentrations of civilians and deliberate attacks against civilians with incendiary weapons (deliberate attacks on civilians are prohibited regardless of the type of weapon used). The 1949 Geneva Conventions do not regulate the use of incendiary weapons. Additional Protocol I.[7] prohibits the indiscriminate use of any weapons, not only incendiary. Both Russia and Ukraine are signatories of the 1980 Protocol on Incendiary Weapons, the former ratified it on June 10, 1982, while the latter did so on June 23, 1982.[8]”

    “The use of incendiary weapons in the Russo-Ukrainian War was first remarked in Sloviansk in June 2014;[14] followed late July 2014 around eastern Ukraine,[15] then in August at Ilovaisk,[14] and between Oleksandrivka and Chumaky in November,[16] all battlegrounds of the war in Donbas (2014–2022).”

    “The most significant using of incendiary weapons were used a number of times during the Russo-Ukrainian War.[citation needed] Russians were accused of using white phosphorus bombs multiple times; in the Battle of Kyiv and against Kramatorsk in March 2022,[1] against dug-in defenders at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May 2022,[2][3][4][5] and in Marinka over the 2022 Christmas holiday.[6] White phosphorus is a toxic chemical, and exposure to vapors leads to long-term ailments of the body, up to permanent disfigurement and death through organ failure.”

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_of_incendiary_weapons_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War

    “White phosphorus grenades were used by the US in Vietnam to destroy Viet Cong tunnel complexes as they would burn up all oxygen and suffocate the enemy soldiers sheltering inside.”

    “US Sherman tanks carried the M64, a 75mm white phosphorus round intended for screening and artillery spotting, but tank crews found it useful against German tanks such as the Panther that their APC ammunition could not penetrate at long range. Smoke from rounds fired directly at German tanks would be used to blind them, allowing the Shermans to close to a range where their armour-piercing rounds were effective. In addition, due to the turret ventilation systems sucking in fumes, German crews would sometimes be forced to abandon their vehicle: this proved particularly effective against inexperienced crews who, on seeing smoke inside the turret, would assume their tank had caught fire.[6] Smoke was also used for “silhouetting” enemy vehicles, with rounds dropped behind them to produce a better contrast for gunnery.[7]”

    – Wikipedia White phosphorus munitions

    both part of much longer articles.

    Sorry, remind me once again, who won WWII? 😀

  24. @Peloni Greenwald is lying through his teeth. There is no bias I can detect in these articles. The one on him is long.

    He is a virulent Israelophobe and he’s an anti-Trumper.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_medicine

    Oh, and he isn’t one of the founders of Wikipedia either.

    “There are two co-founders of Wikipedia: Larry Sanger (born 1968), American internet project developer. Jimmy Wales (born 1966), American-British internet entrepreneur.”

    – Wikipedia

    “Greenwald has criticized the Israeli government, including its foreign policy, claimed influence on U.S. politics and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.[114][115] In May 2016, Greenwald accused The New York Times of “abject cowardice” in its use of quotation marks for the occupation of Gaza and alleged “journalistic malfeasance” in the incident “out of fear of the negative reaction by influential factions”. After Greenwald’s criticism, the New York Times removed the quotation marks in the article he had criticised.[116][117]

    Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic in January 2012 said Greenwald “evinces toward Israel a disdain that is quite breathtaking. He holds Israel to a standard he doesn’t hold any other country, except the U.S.”[118] Liel Leibovitz in Tablet magazine in 2013 considered it “largely inaccurate” to match Greenwald’s “obsessive focus on Israel’s supposed role in evil global conspiracies to simple anti-Semitism. Instead, the ideology that drives [his] tendency to see the NSA and Israel as two heads of the same Satanic beast is more complex and ideologically-driven—an attack on the doctrines of exceptionalism that fueled the rise of both America and Israel.”[119]

    Following the Charlie Hebdo murders in January 2015, David Bernstein in The Washington Post wrote Greenwald (in an Intercept article) “certainly appears to believe that Der Sturmer-like anti-Semitic cartoons are the moral and logical equivalent of making fun of Moses or Muhammed.”[120]

    In an exchange with Greenwald in February 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted, “It’s all about the Benjamins baby”, suggesting that money rather than principle motivated US politicians’ support for Israel, including payments from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to US politicians. Many Democrats and Republicans, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, condemned the tweet arguing it perpetuated an antisemitic stereotype of Jewish money and influence fueling American politicians’ support of Israel.[121] Greenwald defended Omar: “we’re not allowed to talk about an equally potent well-organized and well-financed lobby that ensures a bipartisan consensus in support of U.S. defense of Israel, that the minute that you mention that lobby, you get attacked as being anti-Semitic.”[122]”

  25. YNET:

    According to the third Geneva Convention, phosphorus bombs and shells can be used as a means of lighting or as a smoke screen but not against humans because of the plastic materials or phosphorus-laden material in them which ignites in contact with oxygen and sticks to human skin causing severe burns. The limitations on the use of the weapon extend to combatants as well as civilians, for that reason.
    The IDF had used such weaponry extensively in Gaza, especially during the 2014 war there, raising angry condemnation from international bodies. As a result, the military decided to limit their use and has mostly avoided phosphorus bombs and shells during the current war.

  27. DEBASTIEN-

    Yes Wiki is “edited” and “citation needed” is often there. But I’ve written corrections in WiKi that are true of my own knowledge, and ignored the “citation needed” . My inserts are still there after years..

    Twice my alterations were rejected, and I got both of them from other WiKI sources.

    So go figure.

    People reading “citation needed” universally ignore this feeble cover.

    1

  28. Gallant tells Sullivan war to destroy Hamas will take ‘more than several months’

    8 soldiers seriously hurt in Gaza fighting * Ground op toll: 116 * IDF: 70 Hamas gunmen surrender at north Gaza hospital * Knesset passes wartime budget update

  29. @Edgar Wikipedia is edited. It often has comments such as “citation needed.” And they do reject articles. The article cites several quotations by reputable historians validating Raushning. David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier claimed it was discredited. Also, Nazi apologists in the 30s. He emigrated in 1934. One has to be careful in accepting claims of being discredited. One reads the same thing about Joan Peters. They say her writings are “tendentious.” 😀

  30. A lot of young Jewish men are dying – 8 yesterday, most by explosions. Israel should not be asked to give up one life. Does any Israeli leaders say that to Biden and Trump?

    Over 85 per cent Palestinian Arabs support October 7

    https://allisrael.com/85-of-palestinians-express-support-for-hamas-massacre-on-oct-7-palestinian-poll-finds

    The problem is that Israel fights under the old leaders

    And their reaction to October 7 is to persevere with the Palestine Arabs in situ.

    I understand from this 2 things fundamentally

    1. No Israeli leaders are prepared to change to meet the fact staring them in the face which is the Arab population are totally Jihadi with only a HANDFUL of honourable exceptions

    2. A new type of Israeli leadership must be created

    Point number 2 is the point most studiously ignored. It is also the hardest, but most critical.

    1

  31. Tanna and Honeybee,

    My gold is largely in my teeth. The FBI stealing from safety deposit boxes reminds me of Antiochus Epimenes robbing temple treasuries — echoes of Hanukkah.

  32. WIKIPEDIA is only as accurate as it’s contributors, the public allow it to be. Except for Technical info or even Historical info.

    I am not a believer in Wiki to any large extent, except in certain cases.

    Tou very much are.

    My recollection is that Rauschneng was very much discredited, he barely knew Hitler BEFORE the Party was elected, and not much after apart from a few meetings where Hitler wanted info and to discuss annexing Dantzig.

  35. The comments about post being eaten… my experience, maybe a fix and maybe not. I have had post eaten when I go to Instapundit from the link in my email notification. But, when I go directly to the website, it seems to work better. Or, divine providence eats’ our post to keep us from saying things when we are pissed…. happen to me three(3) times a few days ago.

  37. FBI gone completely rogue?

    Following a raid in March 2021, federal agents spent days rifling through the personal belongings stored in nearly 1,400 safe deposit boxes seized from a vault in Beverly Hills, California.

    The agents were tasked with cataloging the contents of the boxes, but they also seized piles of valuables—gold coins, luxury watches, family heirlooms, and stacks of cash—from people who had not been charged with any crimes.

    And they did that despite being told, by the warrant authorizing the raid, that the contents of the safe deposit boxes were off-limits.

    On Thursday, a panel of federal judges at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will be asked whether the FBI’s brazen smash-and-grab scheme that netted more than $86 million in forfeited cash and property violated the Fourth Amendment rights of the raid’s innocent victims.

    “The fundamental principle at stake is that if the government wants to search and seize your property, it has to have some reason to think you did something wrong,” Rob Johnson, an attorney with the Institute for Justice (IJ) and one of the lawyers who will argue the case before the circuit court on Thursday, wrote this week on Twitter. “The FBI came up with a blatant scheme to circumvent that fundamental principle, and, so far, no court has held them to account.”

    https://reason.com/2023/12/06/the-fbi-seized-their-safe-deposit-boxes-now-a-federal-court-will-hear-the-case/

  40. Thanks for the comment, Honeybee. I wish the war were just against Jews and Christians. In fact, it’s against all life. I’m concerned about our children and friends, right here in Oregon:

    Portland passed measure 110, the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, in November 2020 with 58 percent voter support. After becoming law, illicit drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin were decriminalized, allowing small amounts to be carried for personal use.

    The city has since been grappling with increased homelessness and substance abuse, both of which critics contend have been exacerbated by Measure 110 and the decriminalization of hard drugs. Portland City Council voted unanimously on Sept. 6 to ban substances such as fentanyl and heroin from being used in public amid the ongoing opioid and public health crisis.

    Authorities in Oregon seized tens of thousands of fentanyl pills in Multnomah County back in August, marking the largest illegal drug bust in county history, according to officials. Upon closer inspection of the seized drugs, authorities found 58,000 individual fentanyl pills and 16 pounds of fentanyl powder. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, can prove deadly as it is many times more potent than heroin, elevating overdose risk.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/portland-officials-propose-re-ban-public-drug-use-governor-declare-fentanyl-emergency

    This is, effectively, genocide against the US. The rest of the world, including Israel, will follow unless it is stopped.

  43. SEB-

    Why are you “telling” me about the IDF casualties. I was pointing out to all the lies that the Gaza terrorist “Health Ministry” was reporting. And why are you recommending Arutz 7 for me to read??

    I check it a dozen times a day , and often post comments from it.
    I’m sure you know this because I state where I got the info.

    You just waste space with this sort of stuff, unless you are in a competition for The Most Active Poster Of The Year………….

  44. SEB-

    I’m surprised that you don’t know that Rauschning’s writings, especially about his talks with Hitler have been deemed for YEARS to be very unreliable and useless to researchers.. You should relate the complete info..if you have it.

    I’ve known this for over 50 years ,as I recall reading about him. He was very well known. Danzig, at one time was very much in the news being one of the very few “Free Cities”, an idea which has medieval antecedents, now long out of use.

    I read a book which had a chapter on Free Cities and Dantzig was prominently mentioned because of it’s pre-War importance on the International scene, especially the 1930’s when Europe was “heating up” towards War. All through the 1930s there were wars going in several places, with European nations trying to make themselves into Empires.

  45. I don’t believe this Otto Wagener character. AS far as I know, there is no confirmation of his supposed support for Marxism and admiration of Karl Marx other than the claims of this guy. Hitler left behind voluminous writings–the Table Talk Mein Kampf and his unpublished second book–and people who were in frequent communication with him, most notably Goebels very extensive diaries, letters and speeches– and I aven;t seen a word in any of them in which he expresses admiration for Kark Marx and his philsophy. Hitler believed that Marxism was just one of the methods that the Jews were using to take over the world,

    The author of the the Independent article fails to make a distinction between Marxism and socialism. This is a mistake. There are many people and groups that saw themselves as socialists butwho were opposed to Marxism. Hitler was certainly a socialist in his own mind, but a national socialist as the name of his party makes clear. National socialism, as Hitler saw it with the socialism that applied only to a particular race, That race, as Hitler saw it, was the Aryan race, and inparticular to its :Nordic” branch, to which Hitler thought the Germans belonged. Hitler believed that socialist policies, such as the protection of the rights of workers,helth and welfare benefits, state supplied jobs, etc,. should apply only to ethnic German workers, and perhaps also to those of what he considered kindred peoples, such the Norwegians and the Dutch. Peoples whom he regarded as inferior, such as the Poles.. Russians and the Jews, had no rights whatever undeer national socialism. They hadno rights whatsoever, and should either be used as slaves by the German folk or wiped out altogether, Hitler was careful to distinguish between his national socialism and the international socialism of the Jews and Bolsheviks, which supposedly aimed at the destruction or enslavement of the German-Aryan folk.

  46. “…Hermann Rauschning, for example, a Danzig Nazi who knew Hitler before and after his accession to power in 1933, tells how in private Hitler acknowledged his profound debt to the Marxian tradition…”

    ibid

  47. Hermann Rauschning, for example, a Danzig Nazi who knew Hitler before and after his accession to power in 1933, tells how in private Hitler acknowledged his profound debt to the Marxian tradition. “I have learned a great deal from Marxism” he once remarked, “as I do not hesitate to admit”. He was proud of a knowledge of Marxist texts acquired in his student days before the First World War and later in a Bavarian prison, in 1924, after the failure of the Munich putsch. The trouble with Weimar Republic politicians, he told Otto Wagener at much the same time, was that “they had never even read Marx”, implying that no one who had failed to read so important an author could even begin to understand the modern world; in consequence, he went on, they imagined that the October revolution in 1917 had been “a private Russian affair”, whereas in fact it had changed the whole course of human history! His differences with the communists, he explained, were less ideological than tactical. German communists he had known before he took power, he told Rauschning, thought politics meant talking and writing. They were mere pamphleteers, whereas “I have put into practice what these peddlers and pen pushers have timidly begun”, adding revealingly that “the whole of National Socialism” was based on Marx.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/hitler-and-the-socialist-dream-1186455.html