Been There - Done That

CNN reporter interviews a Baltimore resident who gets it:

JOE JOHNS, CNN: Sir, who are you?

BALTIMORE RESIDENT, VETERAN: Just a soldier.

JOHNS: And you sort of took it upon yourself to tell those young people to go away.

VETERAN: Yes.

JOHNS: Aren't you a little bit concerned about your own safety? I mean, there is a lot of bottles and rocks and things -- 

VETERAN: I did 30 years, okay, came out a Master Sergeant. I've seen more than all this. I've been through the riots already. This right here is not relevant. They need to have their butts at home. They need to be in their home units with their families studying and doing something with their life. Not out here protesting about something that is not really about nothing. They do not respect this young man's death. You know. Now, mama and daddy lost a child. That could be them. So I'm very pissed.

JOHNS: So what's your name?

VETERAN: Valentine. 

JOHNS: And your first name? 

VETERAN: Robert. 

JOHNS: Robert Valentine. And you're a Vietnam vet?

VETERAN: Yes.

JOHNS: And you just decided to come out here and stand up against these guys?

VETERAN: Yes.

JOHNS: You know, a lot of people would think twice, wouldn't they? 

VETERAN: I love my country. I love my Charm City. I'm an American. I'm not black, white, red, yellow or nothing. I am American.

One Clout And You're Out!

It’s not uncommon for mothers, fathers, spouses, siblings and even children forgive their family member for committing all sorts of crimes. In the cases of family members that propensity for forgiveness falls under the category of family loyalty.

But as a society, we too are a family of sorts. As a family we must protect our larger family from brutes and brutality. Therefore I favor a zero tolerance in the case of domestic violence.

Granted everyone can make a mistake and everyone does. However when that mistake comes in the form of physical abuse, at the expense of another human being, it becomes more than a mere misstep, it’s a crime.

Even if the assaulted party choses to forgive and forget a mugging or a left hook to the jaw, as in the case of Ray Rice knocking out his love and then unceremoniously dragging her out of the elevator, as a civilized society we should not. We should adopt a zero tolerance for domestic abuse from those who perpetrate it and those who look the other way.

               

The Smell Test Reeks

From The Daily Caller via Instapundit

The IRS signed a contract with Sonasoft, an email-archiving company based in San Jose, California, each year from 2005 to 2010. The company, which partners with Microsoft and counts The New York Times among its clients, claims in its company slogans that it provides “Email Archiving Done Right” and “Point-Click Recovery.” Sonasoft in 2009 tweeted, “If the IRS uses Sonasoft products to backup their servers why wouldn’t you choose them to protect your severs?”

Sonasoft was providing “automatic data processing” services for the IRS throughout the January 2009 to April 2011 period in which Lerner sent her missing emails.

But Sonasoft’s six-year business relationship with the IRS came to an abrupt end at the close of fiscal year 2011, as congressional investigators began looking into the IRS conservative targeting scandal and IRS employees’ computers started crashing left and right.

An Incurable Disease

Only a Jew like Joel Beinin can be so anti-Semitic. He is the victim of a disease that infects Jews in a disproportionately high number. The malady is called 'Self Loathing Syndrome' It is a particularly difficult disease to cure because the host views itself as a foreign body and tries to reject itself. Unfortunately it is highly contagious and those who attend universities are most susceptible to contracting it.

Kippa Question Answered

Just as the the Turban identifies the wearer as a Sikh and the Kufi declares that the wearer is a Muslim, more than anything else, the Kippa proclaims I am Jewish.

Historically Jews have kept themselves apart from the majority culture and the non-Jew was more than willing to help us to achieve that goal. For centuries churches and mosques have preached anti-Semitism because of the refusal of Jews to accept Jesus as their Messiah or Mohammed as their prophet. Negative stereotypes inevitably evolved from Jews being the 'other' and the outsider, a price exacted because of our self imposed separatism combined with the intolerance of our fellow citizens.

People like to be accepted by other people. It is human nature. But the very nature of Judaism keeps Jews from being like everyone else. In the past Jews were very different from their non-Jewish neighbors - we lived in different neighborhoods (not always by choice) the foods we ate, the clothing we wore, we prayed in a foreign tongue, we went to synagogue, not church. We discouraged inter-marriage, we spoke Yiddish in addition to a our native national tongue.

I heard Jewish boys who said that they would not marry a Jewish girl because they are all JAPS, Jewish American Princesses, or spoiled brats. Many have kept their word. Even early Reform rabbis dressed like priests and ministers by wearing clerical collars in an effort to fit in with Christian society. Jews wanted to be like the everyone else so we dressed, ate, acted and even thought like everyone else. Some have gone even as far as adopting their nefarious traits such as hatred of Jews coupled with varying degrees of anti-Semitism. Most anti-Semites will claim they are not anti-Semites, just as Jews who hate being Jewish claim they are not self-hating Jews.

Unless Jews start acting and thinking like everyone else in their prevailing society there will always be anti Jewish feelings and resentment. When we learn to accept, integrate, assimilate and become part of the prevailing society we will of course stop being behavioral Jews, while we can still adhere to values promulgated by Judaism. I was once told that Jews bring envy and hatred upon themselves because they act with an air of superiority. They point out how many Nobel Prize winners they have produced and other achievements in numbers way beyond their percentage of the population. Of course that reason is false because throughout history Jews were hated and persecuted even when they were lowly slaves or powerless victims shoveled into the ovens of Europe.

It has been noted that Jewish youth have become more liberal than their elders. Is it due to enlightenment as some believe or is it to secularism which enables them to assimilate more easily. Denying ethics derived from Judaism or minimizing its influence is nothing more than an attempt to justify their alienation from Judaism – which is a result of the pull of assimilation (acceptance) by the vast majority of folks.

What Did He Know?

He didn't know about Benghazi
He didn't know about Fast and Furious (misbegotten federal gun-trafficking)
He didn't know about the Accociated Press phone records scandle
He didn't know about the IRS targeting Tea Party members
He didn't know about the ObamaCare 'glitches' debacle
He didn't know about the NSA spying on friends and allies

Saving Shelly

by Steve Wenick

There it was stuck smack in the middle of the road. I tapped my brakes and slowly coasted closer to it; yet I still could not make out what it was. At first glance it appeared that it was just another clump of road kill or a twisted ribbon of torn off tire tread or even a bunch of soiled rags. I cautiously edged my car to the curb and stopped close to the unidentified object. I got out of my car and guardedly approached what turned out to be a very prehistoric looking creature. Upon closer scrutiny I discovered that the ‘thing’ was a turtle.

It was no ordinary turtle. It was huge. It had a massive head which sported a powerful hooked jaw, capable of snapping a broom handle in two. Its enormous weathered brownish-black shell was approximately eighteen inches long. Its saw-toothed tail was so huge that it could not fit completely under its protective shell and neither could its formidable looking clawed feet. The thing must have weighed 45 – 50 lbs. It was an intimidating looking primeval monster.

Nevertheless I felt sorry for that hapless and helpless creature which was probably about 50 years old or so and appeared to be nearing the end of its life. Nevertheless that geriatric turtle, which was powered by millions of years of DNA fuel, managed to follow its destiny to the middle of the road before running out of gas. It appeared as if it had been glued to the asphalt; I feared that its end would come sooner than later. I tried to coax it toward the sidewalk by gently nudging its shell with the tip of my shoe but each time I touched it the animal lurched toward me while snapping at whatever part of me it could reach.

Fortunately for me it only managed to grab a mouthful of air. After ten minutes of playing a game of touch and go with that primordial armored reptile I managed to annoy it just enough to convince it to move closer to the curb. Once it was temporarily removed from the flow of traffic I decided to call for help because it persisted once again to attempt to plod its way across the street.

First I called the local animal rescue organization which informed me that they do not rescue turtles. Then I called PETA. The representative on the other end, named Joe, was very accommodating but of no help. He suggested that I grab the beast by its tail and carry it out of danger. There was no way that was going to happen and for three good reasons: it snaps and snaps and snaps.

So there I was alone and stuck with the creature which by now I had grown protective of and even gave it a gender neutral name, Shelly. Abandoning it at this point was not an option because it would only end up in the middle of the street again. I was totally at a loss what to do next. Suddenly I had an idea. I called one of my neighbors and asked if he would drive a couple of blocks to where the drama was unfolding and bring a shovel. I figured that I could safely scoop up the antediluvian behemoth with the shovel and deposit it safely on the curb out of harm’s way.

When Stew pulled up in his car, he realized that in his haste he forgot to bring a shovel. Undaunted by that minor setback he assessed the situation, and decided to call a local newspaper to see if they had any ideas who might help or if they thought the trekking turtle was a story worth reporting. Stew was wrong; the paper simply declined the potential scoop. I assumed it decided that a murder, robbery, or fire story would make for a better headline than, “Why Did the Turtle Cross the Road?” So Stew got back in his car, put it in gear and drove off leaving me with alone with my dilemma and Shelly.

It was then that I decided to call the Cherry Hill Township’s office and ask for help. The voice at the other end suggested that I call the police and then the line went dead. I called the non-emergency number of police and the duty sergeant connected me to the police dispatcher. The dispatcher seemed a bit perplexed and unsure what to do; it’s not every day the dispatcher gets a call to rescue a turtle. To my surprise moments later three black and white police cars converged on the scene. I must have oversold the potential danger the prehistoric looking beast posed to have elicited such a rapid and powerful response.

As the officers got out of their vehicles, wearing their standard gear and a no nonsense police countenance, they looked at each other somewhat surprised that the crises turned out to be about nothing more than a fugitive turtle. Nevertheless one of the officers contacted the Wildlife and Conservation Agency seeking advice on how to best handle the situation without injuring the turtle. He was informed by the voice on the other end that since it was currently the turtles’ egg laying season state law forbids moving the creature more than 500 feet from where it was found. After two of the three police cruisers drove off I was confident that the one officer who remained to ‘preserve and protect’ had the situation under control and the amphibian’s safety was secured.

For reasons unknown to me, during my watch, I had grown quite protective of the creature. Perhaps it was the fact that I could not let my rescued pet, which had survived almost half a century, ignominiously meet its fate under the wheels of a truck or car. Also, to my surprise I felt a bit sad that I probably would never see that turtle again knowing that it would be restored to its haunts in a nearby stream or pond. Nevertheless I was consoled knowing that Shelly would be safe once again in its natural habitat.