or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
January 29, 2012
Clarification
By: John Caruso
Actually, accusing people like Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson of "dual loyalty" is deeply offensive. Their loyalty to Israel is second to none.
ADDED BY JON: Sorry to pile on a joke with something serious, but the ridiculous part about all the internet's yammering about this is that almost none of it on any side has anything to do with reality. Saban, Adelson, etc. have as much loyalty to the actual Israel (i.e., the one made up of the people who live there) as Netanyahu—in other words, none at all. Remember Sara Netanyahu's views:
Bibi is a leader who is greater than this entire country, he really is a leader on a national scale. We'll move abroad. This country can burn.
Saban and Adelson's actions, like Netanyahu's, have nothing to do with the well-being of actual Israelis, and everything to do with feeding their own bizarre egos and lust for power. And obviously it's the same with right-wing politicians and their funders in every country. George W. Bush was eagerly consolidating power after 9/11 even as his EPA lied to everyone in New York City and helped Osama bin Laden kill more of us.
You might say that Saban and Adelson have a greater loyalty to Israel's right-wing oligarchy than America's right-wing oligarchy, but I'm not sure even that is right. I'm pretty sure if you got to nut-cutting time, they'd choose America's oligarchy over Israel's, just because it better serves the hungry ghost inside of them.
Posted at January 29, 2012 12:51 PM
Could be they like the wide open spaces here. I, myself, being a Zionist Jew, would NOT want to be in downtown Jerusalem with shit going down. NO room to run. Its not crowded here like Gaza so a feller's got a little range to work things out.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 29, 2012 05:18 PMWait, wtf? Does this mean I have to boycott Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and Voltron?
Posted by: saurabh at January 29, 2012 07:04 PMAs well, people who publicly proclaim their allegiance to the USA most loudly also tend to denigrate about half of it equally loudly (either the California/New York/Taxachusetts parts or the Alabama/Mississippi/South Carolina parts.) As I guess you said.
Can somebody explain to me what Jewish Heaven is?
Or, how Jewish Folks get to their idea of Heaven?
Does Israel need to exist for a Jewish Person to make it to heaven?
Perhaps this is why Jewish Folks are so tied to Israel?
Calm
It is well known that The Universal Smedley is, as you say, only loyal to "numero uno."
Posted by: Dredd at January 30, 2012 11:51 AMCalm: Find two Jews in the same room and ask them. I'm POSITIVE YOU will get anywhere from three to five differing versions. Personally, I believe in " One life, one death, after that is Judgement Day." Beyond that I have no real opinion about it except that those that survive Judgement will be with "The King Of The Universe."
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 30, 2012 12:01 PMAs far as Israel---The British handed it over to The Jews for a place to live that wasn't in Europe. Too much bad publicity on both sides for an enclave in Europe after WWII. During the war, Europe (and a lot of other nations) expressed the opinion that Jews weren't wanted around or even allowed to live, and Jews were afraid to stay. Thus the need of a place for them as just killing them all off was looking somewhat barbaric.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at January 30, 2012 12:17 PMHi! Mike Meyer
Lets just refer to "Orthodox Jews" then.
It is my understanding that religious Jews believe that a Messiah is gonna return to the Land of Israel and all the Jews buried there are gonna rise up and get to heaven.
They do believe in an afterlife because why else would they insist on having all their body parts buried with them and why they are so against organ donations.
The point I'm trying to make as per "dual loyalty" is that if Israel does not continue to exist, they lose their ticket to heaven.
Catholics as an example are different .... they could care less if the Vatican was nuked because they don't need the Vatican to get to heaven.
Calm
Posted by: Calm at January 30, 2012 12:23 PMCalm:
There is no particular theological imperative regarding the State of Israel and the Jewish World to Come. Jews do not have to be buried there in order to obtain their portion in the Messianic Age.
Many religious Jews (eg, Satmar Hasidim) reject Zionism as an effort to force the hand of God. Before the declaration of the state many religious Jews opposed it, but then embraced it for political and economic reasons.
One can be a religious Jew with faith that Messiah is coming without accepting Zionist politics at all.
Posted by: seth at January 30, 2012 04:41 PMHungry ghost? Hungry ghost? Now I know an extra thing, and my brain is ever so slightly bigger.
I thank you.
Calm: Seth has YOU covered much better than I could. As an Essene, my beliefs are radically different from modern Jewery of all sorts(except Essenes). I'm fairly sure a Rabbi of some sort can be found near by that YOU could ask should YOU decide to delve deeper into the question.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at February 1, 2012 03:16 PM
