Frum Anti-Obamaism

A near-daily read, for me, is the frum news-site Vos-Iz-Neias (pronounced "glayyyvin"). Even though, rumor has it, that it's assur to use the intertubes, VIN gathers news from as many sources as possible to bring news stories of interest and importance to the Jewish community. I was 'converted' to them, as it were, when a friend's synagogue had been vandalized and the story was not on the JTA website but was on VIN.

So what does VIN determine is important to the frum news consumer? On one side I admire them for bringing stories of rabbi abuse, chillul Hashem riots, and general criticism of the frum community. On the other side, they seem to have aligned themselves with the Republican party and will gleefully show anything against Democrats and Obama in particular. For example, it is a-priori accepted by the VIN editors that the Health Care Plan is bad for frum Jews (why? because the GOP - a collection of Christian White Men from the South and/or Mountain West - says so).

And, of course, like any website that allows comments (and is read by more than 2 people, unlike The Styx), the comment section is where you'll find the true crazy. Were I a sociologist (uh, wait a sec...) I'd make a theory about how comments-sections reflect the nature of a website. But, to be honest, I can't go that far. Yet. I will say, though, that a sociologist of the Jews would find the crazy exhibited in the comments fascinating.

Take this crazy example, commented on a news thread about (what else) the friendly psychotic Muslim Doctor mass murderer:

Moshe in Baltimore Says:
The anonymous "gunman" was Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39 year old Muslim. Of course this was a terror attack. And to #9, Barack HUSSEIN Obama grew up Muslim, and will always be a Muslim. He is very on top of the game of Islam infiltrating the US and other Western Countries. Look at Yechezkel 38:2, the word Nasi, "Prince" Gog of Magog ends in an Alef. Count every seventh letter and it will spell Alef, Vav, Bais, Alef, Mem, Hay; "Obama". It's an obvious Torah code he is Gog or a major player. May Hashem hasten the Geula with no negative affect to Klal Yisroel.

Again, I'm not sure how "Moshe in Baltimore"s Rebbe has allowed him to access the interwebs, unless Moshe himself is a Rosh Yeshiva. It could explain his superior gematria skillz.

P.S. The commenters are also wacko about vaccines. Fun times for the dumb frum.

Video of the Day: Texas Secession

My brother sent me this youtube clip about Texas' most recent plan to secede from the Union. A grateful nation thanks the dude who made this clip.

Now She's Wallace!

More and more commentators are bringing heat on Hillary for her "hard working white" comments. This is from the (pretty liberal) Joe Conason at the Huffington Post:

Citing an Associated Press analysis "that found how Senator Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me," she went on to say: "There's a pattern emerging here."

There is indeed a pattern emerging -- and it is a pattern that must dismay everyone who admires the Clintons and has defended them against the charge that they are exploiting racial divisions.

As Sean Wilentz and others have argued, there was no ugly subtext to her innocuous remark about the different roles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Lyndon Baines Johnson in the civil rights crusade, although several prominent Obama supporters promoted that smear. And if Bill Clinton's comparison of Obama and Jesse Jackson was badly timed and clumsy, that too fell within the bounds of acceptable commentary. Indeed, the discussion of ethnic and racial voting preferences is not only fair but unavoidable and utterly mundane in American politics.

But this time she violated the rhetorical rules, no doubt by mistake. It was her offhand reference to "working, hard-working Americans, white Americans" that raises the specter of old Dixie demagogues like Wallace and Lester Maddox. Was she dog-whistling to the voters of Kentucky and West Virginia?

Conason, by aligning himself with the loopy Wilentz, shows that he doesn't entirely get the depravity of Hillary... yet even he recognizes the George Wallace-ness of Hillary. It's as if she's completed the transformation of Nixon and is pursuing her own Southern Strategy.

h/t TPM, photo from Wiki.

Why do the money-cons hate Huckabee?

An interchange between me and Prof. Kleiman of The Reality Based Community. What makes him classy is that he responds to his emails (unlike TPM or Sullivan):

Dear Dr. Kleiman,

I like the list of theories you give for why the money-cons, and the GOP DC establishment, hate Huckabee. I believe that the class-consciousness, and the Northern Elite snobbery, against Huckabee also informed the deep irrational hatred directed at Huckabee's predecessor: William Jefferson "Bubba" Clinton. Hillary is hated on her own grounds (and I am with you on all those reasons as well), but she's one of the establishment. I said it back during the 90s that "Bubba" was hated by the Press and by the GOP because he was perceived as poor white trash with delusions of grandeur. And the same thing is playing out with Huckabee.

He responded, in part, with this:

I'm sure you're right, but Fred Thompson is also pretty "trashy," and they have no objection to him. Indeed, he's probably their favorite.

Then my re-response:

I assume it's because "Hollywood" Fred Thompson was a Senator and a lobbyist. No matter how much cow-poo was on his boots when he walked into Congress, that stuff disappears pretty quickly. Governers, as you well know, are considered provincial and un-"experienced" when it comes to foreign policy. Some states can probably get away from that image (e.g. anyone from the coasts), but completely land-bound Hillbilly country?

Also, another difference between Thompson and Huckabee is the big cultural difference between Arkansas and Tennessee. I grew up both in upstate New York and in Memphis, Tennessee and TN is far more 'urbane' (especially Memphis) than the surrounding area.

Pic from here. Backpost finished 2009-12-14.

The Difference Between New York and Louisiana

Aside from the frequency of city-drowning hurricanes, it's the attitude towards Hate Crimes.

This morning, an African-American Columbia University professor found a noose hanging from her office door. New York considers this a pretty blatant hate-crime. Because, uh, a noose is a murder device that was historically used to terrorize and random innocent African Americans throughout the United States but mainly in the South. This was called "lynching" and it was considered a popular pastime for those who also like Rebel Flags and "Southern Culture."

Anyway, as you know there was a case a year ago in Jena, Louisiana where a bunch of nooses were hung in a racially divided high school that led to a year-long escalation of White-Black clashes. The people who hung the nooses were caught and were punished with the merest slap of the wrist possible. And, and, it was not considered a Hate Crime. Why? According to the Wiki:

District Attorney Walters stated that Washington had found no federal statute under which the teens could be prosecuted, just as he had found no applicable state statute."

The Bush Justice Department - whose civil rights division has been gutted in order to vigorously pursue voter fraud - was even willing to consider this a hate crime... but Louisiana does not considered it such. What's a few nooses between friends?

None of this will end well.

Another Dude Who Agrees With Me About the South

'Taint many. But this dude agrees with me about how we should be reviling those who talk about the 'Southern/Dixie Heritage.' The picture here shows (The Thinkery: My New Favorite Photo) what the southern heritage is all about: violence, oppression, and slavery.

This art exhibit was shown at The Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science in Tallahassee, Florida. And the best part? People were protesting the 'desecration' of the flag.

Desecration? Of a symbol of slavery, violence, horror? Of the flag of TRAITORS who led an ARMED INSURRECTION against the United States? Considering how brutal and idiotic we've been in the past few years in our reaction to 9/11, how can these cracker bigots - who doubtless applaud the torture and prisoner abuse of 'furriners' - defend an entire army and government of traitors and terrorists. A terror state that killed more Americans than any other Army.

Hang the flag high boys, on twisted hemp.