Lubavitch want a synagogue in a historic district

Here is their side of the story.

In my day, we would have called Roman Polanski a dirty old man

No matter how great an artist--which I do not for a moment concede--the guy is a first class criminal.

And . . . how would Whoopi Goldberg feel if Polanski had been a priest? Would she still see it more as a seduction than as a “rape-rape”

A couple of years ago, I saw an exhibit of Hitler's artwork at the Williams College Museum. At the entrance to the exhibit there was a sign which said in essence that because Hitler had artistic talent you would believe he would be a fine, idealistic, humanitarian fellow, wouldn't you?

No, Virginia, I wouldn't. There have been lots of persons with artistic or literary talent who were slimeballs. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the famous philosopher, who abandoned his newborn babies on church steps, springs to mind. I guess they didn't have late term abortion in France in those days.

Plenty of others come to my mind, and no doubt to yours. My point is that talent and good character don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. But the enlightened thinkers of our day think artistic talent excuses anything.

Remember Jack Henry Abbott, an inmate who Norman Mailer sprang from jail on the grounds that he was a writer? Within a couple of days of his release he killed an innocent man. His book wasn't even that good, either.

Whoopi Goldberg is, of course, the sage who believes that steel cannot melt and therefore 9/11 was an inside job. Well, no-one could consider her talented, so she'd better abide by the law of the land.

New developments in vexation

I know everyone is waiting with bated breath for news of the latest thing in my house to break down. Actually, it's the garbage disposal. The plumber has been duly informed.

In other new developments (aside from dropping the printer on my toe and breaking it--the printer, not the toe-- while crawling around the back of the computer attempting to connect to the internet, which does not count as it wasn't broken before I dropped it), we have ants and other critters. There are creepy little black things on the floor of the new bathroom. I clean them, and they come back. The exterminator said they were not caused by insects and offered to rid me of ants for $175. I refused, because he did not offer a solution to the creepy little black things, and because I thought I could handle the ants myself for less than $175.

So I bought ant traps at the Acme and put them here and there. The ants appear to consider them a special treat and are swarming around them without apparent harm. This made me angry. So I took a container of house and garden spray and sprayed the little buggers with it. I don't think it bothered the ants, but Mr Charm and I had to open a window and go sit in another room because it smelled so noxious.

Does my house have some degenerative disease which causes the appliances to break down? Or is there a curse on the place?

British soldiers dismayed by politicians' expenditures

Soldiers have to spend their own money on protective gear, while politicians are having their moats cleaned.

Gary was among a number of troops who were moonlighting during their annual leave to earn money for military equipment.

It was his fury at discovering how much taxpayers’ money MPs were lavishing on themselves – while he and other soldiers were saving up to buy their own body armour and other equipment – that prompted the leak by one of his civilian colleagues.

I think the British Parliament is due for a change. What a bunch of bums!

A toast to the immortal Dave Burge

 

I'll drink to that!

Dave Burge is going to award a prize to the piece of art which idolizes him, so here is mine. Looking forward to winning the $33 and change Dave stole from his kid's sock drawer.

Most interesting news item of the day

A Saxon gold hoard has been discovered in the West of England.

Most uninteresting news item of the day

From delawareonline.com

Summer swine flu levels in state [that would be Delaware] go unreported.

Health problems health care can't fix

What do you expect from a President who smokes cigarettes?

If only for the sake of his daughters, he should have the guts to quit.

This post interested me:

It's from the website of Susan Daniel, soprano and rose expert:

He was a 24 year old [British soldier] returned from Iraq and preparing to train for Afghanistan.

I asked about armour. "Why" he said, "do they spend the money training us from scratch for 6 months, and then send us out on patrol without sufficient protection, particularly on foot patrol and tank duty?"

Food:- "We get two meals, sausage and beans like you get in a tin, and the other is potato and meatballs, though there aren't many of those, and we pour hot water on it."

"Veg? Dairy? Fruit? I asked. "You need protein 3 times a day." "That's it" he said, "sometimes they top us up with Lucozade stuff." ...

No one has told them why they are there.

"Many get very shaky"......"Do you have any help with that?.....The Padre?" "Yes, but there's a two week wait to see him....

He had spent his first two weeks in Iraq in the same clothes, and his first six weeks in split boots. "The Americans are REALLY well provided, fed and armoured. They have visors to protect their eyes against the sand."

He had had to buy his own, smart blue tracksuit for himself....the one that I had noticed with his regimental crest.

While I am happy that American soldiers are well fed and well equipped, it makes me sad that the British soldiers who fight bravely by our side are not. Do the British public and the British government care? Perhaps not.

I've always loved England and felt a great kinship with them. Our laws and customs, while different from theirs, are derived from English laws and customs. But nowadays they seem to have lost their nerve. Sad.

And with the continuing slights the Brits have received from our leadership, I am surprised they still carry on supporting us.

Vexed

It's been a week of annoyances, which resemble tiny insects buzzing around your head. Actually, that was one of the annoyances: very small creatures were suddenly coming from everywhere. The place was like a zoo of the insect world. It took a visit from an exterminator to pinpoint the cause: an open garbage bag left festering on the back porch since Labor Day by my loving family. Garbage having been taken out, peace ensued between us and the insect world. Cost: $175.

My computer dropped dead a couple of weeks ago so I went to Best Buy and ordered a house call. I felt stupid doing so, because a new laptop costs about $600, and the house call costs $200. But this computer was only purchased 15 months ago, and it was too new to fail. My thrifty nature made me incapable of trashing it without a struggle. So I waited all day for the Geek Squad guy. At 4:30 I called the local Best Buy--it only took 15 minutes of talking to robots to find someone to complain to--and the customer service person told me that the repairman had gone home sick. Cost: nothing. Result: also nothing.

Borrowed laptop to pay my bills. Discovered laptop could not connect to the Internet. Called Verizon, who told me the internet connection was working but eventually relented and sent Chuck out to fix whatever it was. Cost: nothing but aggravation and time spent waiting for Chuck and wishing the entire staff of Verizon collectively had only one neck so I could wring it.

Went to Staples and ordered a house call. Repairman showed up, fixed the computer. His diagnosis: I hadn't shut it down correctly. However, his fix only lasted 48 hours. Back to Staples. They sent their own guy, Mohammed, who had a bit of an attitude; his analysis of the problem: loose cables. He more or less insinuated that some mysterious someone had opened the computer and loosened the cables simply to ruin his day. Cost: $175.

Washer refuses to draw water. Turn water off, then back on again. Nothing. That exhausts the limits of my expertise. GE sent a repairman, eventually, who fiddled with the valve and told me a new valve would cost over $200 with parts and labor, and the washer wasn't worth it. Cost of his sage advice: $89.

Downstairs phone, the one that's hard-wired to the wall, develops problem: it works perfectly, but no-one can hear us when we talk into it. Purchased new telephone at Target, went home to hook it up, discovered that it needed three batteries and we only had two in the house. Purchased 16 batteries for $9. Phone works. Cost: $15 for new phone, $9 for batteries, which will come in handy anyway.

Everything is humming along nicely now, but I question how long this will last.

Cute kids and Vaclav Klaus

Yes, yes, yes! A resounding amen to this observation from Greg:

So, at the opening of the U.N. climate change summit on Tuesday, a hundred or so world leaders (including our own President) were greeted by a thirteen year old girl from India, named Yugratna. Her name might seem complicated to western ears, but her message was simple: we`re just not doing enough to fight global warming....

[H]ere's a key rule one must know about left-wing propaganda: that once they trot out the kids, you know you`re being fed a pile of crap the size of Al Gore`s houseboat. Using pubescent pawns is based on the successful belief that no one dare question children – because they`re smaller and weaker than adults – and for the most part, sincere....

So you know if anyone at that meeting were to stand up to Yugratna, and say, "Hey kid, shouldn`t you be in school instead of trying to ruining our economy based on phony science," you`d be stoned to death. With knives. Made of stone. Shaped like knives.

So, dammit: God bless Czech President Vaclav Klaus. The world`s gutsiest leader went after the U.N. for this shameless BS, saying "It was sad and ...frustrating. It's a propagandistic exercise where 13-year-old girls from some far-away country perform a pre-rehearsed poem. It's simply not dignified."

Sick-making, isn't it?

Sorry to be late...

 

Happy New Year, everyone.

It's all about him

Could this be the Second Coming? (Or the first, if you're Jewish.)

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called
Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

ISAIAH 9:6A

While not claiming--yet--to be the mighty God and the Everlasting Father, Obama seems to feel that he fills the rest of the job description.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama’s address to the U.N. was “a post-American speech by our first post-American president. It was a speech high on the personality of Barack Obama and high on multilateralism, but very short in advocating American interests.”

“It was a very naïve, Wilsonian speech, and very revealing of Obama’s foreign policy,” says Bolton. “Overall, it was so apologetic for the actions of prior administrations, in an effort to distance Obama from them, that it became yet another symbol of American weakness in the wake of the president’s decision to abandon missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and his recent manifest hesitation over what to do in Afghanistan.”

Vegetable art displays from Longwood, September 2009

 

 

 

 

veggie sculpture and corn chandelier at Longwood Gardens

 

 

Miscellaneous musings

No, I'm not dead. Or even on vacation. My absence is due to the failure of the Dell from Hell. My next computer will be a laptop and not a Dell.

What if, when you bought a car, they sold you four wheels, two axles, a motor, and transmission etc., and made you put it together yourself? Cars are about the only things you can buy that are already assembled.

It's a good guess that Acorn is not unionized. How do I know? Because if they were unionized, the employees who were fired would be placed on "administrative leave" with full pay while the matter was "investigated." As are school teachers who are caught messing with underage students.

Learning to paint has taught me to really look at things. It's harder than it sounds. In orer to paint something, you have to observe it very closely. That's hard. The reward of learning to really look and really see what is in front of your eyes results in your seeing everything you look at every day as if for the first time.

I hate the environment!

I was listening to WRTI, the Temple University radio station, who are just fine when they are playing classical music or for that matter, jazz. Anything not using words, as a matter of fact.

The word reader mentioned that someone or other would some time or other interview someone who was "an exhibited artist, a musician, and an animal activist." This so neatly summed up what is wrong with the western world that it caused me to gnash my teeth and led to a strong desire to burn a stack of tires and roast an endangered animal over the resulting flames.

I would be willing to bet that the animal activist in question demonstrated against the Vietnam War and the war in Iraq.

Two Americas

In contemplating the Charlie Rangel scandals, one has to ask, is there one law for them and one for us?

The short answer is yes.

You see, they, the Enlightened Ones, get to live in mansions, cheat on their taxes, and fly around to deliver their sermonettes in private jets, because of all the good they do for us, the little people.

I mean, look at Mary Jo Kopechne. If she had not been left to drown, what would have become of the No Child Left Behind Act? Whether it was worth it to her we'll never know, but it was definitely worth it for the late sainted Ted Kennedy.

Nix on global warming

also known as climate change.

Presidential advice

Does the President ever miss a chance to state, or restate, the obvious?

After the obligatory statement that prosperity is just around the corner, thanks to him, he dispensed this gem:

Stay home if you're sick. Wash your hands frequently. Cover your sneezes with your sleeve, not your hands. And take all the necessary precautions to stay healthy. I know it sounds simple, but it's important and it works.

Are we at the point in our history when the President of the United States has to tell us to wash our hands? Or else, you know, maybe we wouldn't?