Quick links

Here are several links from LGF:

France finally admits role in Holocaust.

Two great articles by Michael Ledeen:

We Are All Fascists Now

We Are All Fascists Now II - American Tyranny

Just read it.

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Man bites dog

This is is what comes to mind when a former KGB Colonel and a current Prime Minister of Russia explains the dangers of socialism.

I get interesting e-mails from someone named Larwin.  I am not sure who it is, but I am sure I have exchanged comments with this person on some blog.  Larwin sent me a link to the Gateway Pundit post with links and comments on former Russian President Putin's speech in Davos at the World Economic Forum.  The transcript of the speech is here.  Here is the money quote:

Esteemed colleagues, one is sorely tempted to make simple and popular decisions in times of crisis. However, we could face far greater complications if we merely treat the symptoms of the disease.

Naturally, all national governments and business leaders must take resolute actions. Nevertheless, it is important to avoid making decisions, even in such force majeure circumstances, that we will regret in the future.

This is why I would first like to mention specific measures which should be avoided and which will not be implemented by Russia.

We must not revert to isolationism and unrestrained economic egotism. The leaders of the world's largest economies agreed during the November 2008 G20 summit not to create barriers hindering global trade and capital flows. Russia shares these principles.

Although additional protectionism will prove inevitable during the crisis, all of us must display a sense of proportion.

Excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state's omnipotence is another possible mistake.

True, the state's increased role in times of crisis is a natural reaction to market setbacks. Instead of streamlining market mechanisms, some are tempted to expand state economic intervention to the greatest possible extent.

The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state's role absolute. In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated. (Emphasis mine - Eric-Odessit).

Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.

And one more point: anti-crisis measures should not escalate into financial populism and a refusal to implement responsible macroeconomic policies. The unjustified swelling of the budgetary deficit and the accumulation of public debts are just as destructive as adventurous stock-jobbing.

Putin knows what he is talking about.  I can vouch for that based on my personal experience.  Here is the video with this quote:

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Is it surprising?

A Nazi hiding out in an Arab country?  Converting to Islam?  Wow, you don't say:

BERLIN —  Documents have surfaced in Egypt showing the world's most-wanted Nazi war criminal, concentration camp doctor Aribert Heim, died in Cairo in 1992, Germany's ZDF television and The New York Times reported.

Wednesday's reports said Heim, known as 'Dr. Death,' was living under a pseudonym and had converted to Islam by the time of his death from intestinal cancer.

ZDF said that in a joint effort with the New York Times, it located a passport, application for a residence permit, bank slips, personal letters and medical papers — in all more than 100 documents — left behind by Heim in a briefcase in the hotel room where he lived under the name Tarek Hussein Farid.

Though he did not know Heim's real identity, Egyptian dentist Tarek Abdelmoneim el Rifai said he knew him through his father, Abdelmoneim el Rifai, 88, who was Heim's dentist in Cairo.

He told the AP on Wednesday that he only met Heim a few times, 20 years ago, but confirmed that he knew of his death.

"He died in 1992. I didn't know that he was a doctor and that he is the most wanted Nazi war criminal. I am surprised," he said in a telephone interview.

"He introduced himself to my father as a German and I know that he converted to Islam and changed his name."

When he met Heim two decades ago at his father's clinic, el Rifai said he had the impression he was on the run.

"The only thing I knew about him is that he fled from the Jews," el Rifai said.  (Emphasis mine - Eric-Odessit).

That poor German escaping from those murderous Jews!  He was just a doctor, dedicated his life to science!  Of course he was welcomed by another Jew-hating regime.  Come to think of it, there seems to be a lot of Jew-hating doctors, just look at Hamas leadership!  What, they don't like the competition?

Read it all.  Of course, it is not surprising that the Nazis find asylum in the Arab countries governed by the modern Jew-hating Nazi-like regimes.  Another one, Alois Brunner escaped to Syria and might still be alive.

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Russians in Afghanistan again?

Here is an interesting news item from Fox News that I stumbled upon:

MOSCOW —  President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday that Russia and its ex-Soviet allies want to help the United States stabilize Afghanistan, saying Moscow wanted "full-fledged" cooperation with Washington.

He spoke a day after the ex-Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan announced it would evict the U.S. from an air base key to the Afghan war. Kyrgyzstan made the move after getting a promise for $2 billion in loans from Russia — which resents the American presence in a region Moscow regards as part of its traditional sphere of influence.

The possibility of the base closure poses a serious challenge to the new U.S. administration and President Barack Obama's plan to send up to 30,000 more American forces into Afghanistan this year.

Click here for photos.

"Russia and other (alliance members) are ready for full-fledged comprehensive cooperation with the United States and other coalition members in fighting terrorism in the region. This fight must be comprehensive and include both military and political components. Only in the case will this have a chance to succeed," Medvedev said.

It was not clear if Medvedev's reference to "full-fledged" cooperation was an attempt to reassure Washington or an indication that Moscow would seek concessions in exchange for helping keep the Manas air base open.

Read it all.  There were some news stories back in late 2001 - early 2002 about the Russians helping us in Afghanistan.  It was all believable back then.  But then Russia started being a pain in the ass.  It is very hard to trust them.  They always have some strange angle.  At the same time, it is in their interests to be our allies, in my opinion.  After all, they have their own problems with the islamists.  But the idiots dreaming of Russia's greatness might screw up the life for us and them.

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A good movie and pretentious blowhards

As I have mentioned before, last Saturday my wife and I went to see the movie "Defiance".  The movie is based on a true story told by Nechama Tec about 4 Bielski brothers who organized a Jewish partisan band in Nazi-occupied Western Byelorussia and saved 1200 Jews.  This is the only kind of Holocaust movie that I like: the kind where Jews save themselves, have guns, fight back and defend themselves.  The movie is very well made, and the acting is pretty good too.  The reviews by regular movie-goers are almost universally good.  People can relate to the story: people hunted like animals stand up and defend themselves.  The professional critics, being the pretentious blowhards that they are, don't particularly like the movie and keep analyzing artistic merits of the story.  But there are no artistic merits in this story, it is what it is.  This is a docudrama, or, more properly, a reenactment of historical events.  The script writer did not have to invent any clever plot lines, they were provided by life itself.  However, the review linked to above is not the most insulting and idiotic.  Yesterday my co-worker sent me a link to this Atlas Shrugs post, which links to a review written by someone named Tom Charity and published by CNN.  Pamela quotes this lovely passage from the review:

"The timing is unfortunate. For a story that has gone neglected for the best part of 60 years, this is hardly the ideal week to be extolling heroic Jewish resistance fighters. Ari Folman's angst-laden nonfiction animated film, "Waltz With Bashir," is altogether more relevant."

This guy of course has a problem with the Jews in Israel defending themselves against Hamas murderers.  This basically reveals the main problem the Left has with Israel.  Besides the anti-Semitism prevalent on the Left, the leftists prefer Jews as quiet little victims silently marching into the gas chambers, so the Left can feel sorry for them afterwards.  But as bad as the passage above is, the complete article is even worse.  The term "pretentious blowhard" is, well, too charitable for Mr. Charity (pun intended).  Mr. Charity writes his review with very little, if any, knowledge and understanding of the subject matter of the film.  Well, I will take up an exercise in futility and attempt to enlighten Mr. Charity and his ilk.

One of the idiocies of this review that stands out is this:

In "Defiance" those words come with a thick, guttural European inflection (Hebrew is spoken as English, though characters also break into subtitled Russian and German on occasion). The speechifying is often clumsy and long-winded.

I would have forgiven Mr. Charity if he would have said "Yiddish is spoken as English".  This is probably the way it was intended by the director anyway.  But Hebrew?  This guy is just an ignorant idiot.  No, I am not being charitable any more.  Apart from a rabbi conducting a service, Hebrew was never spoken by Jews in Byelorussia.  The language spoken by those involved in the story was probably a mixture of Russian, Byelorussian, Polish and Yiddish, with Russian predominating among the city dwellers from the East and Polish among those from the West.  Any commands and speeches would probably be given in Russian.  How do I know this?  Well, look at my background!  Yes, Odessa is not in Byelorussia, but I know enough people from there too.  And there are and were enough similarities in conditions in Odessa and Byelorussia for me to know what language was spoken by the real characters in this story.  And by the way, there was no German spoken by the Jews in the movie.

Mr. Charity laments Zus' decision to join the Soviet partisans and take the fight to the Nazis.  Hiding in some hole must be more appealing for Mr. Charity.  He does not think that the Russians were true friends of Zus.  It would help if Mr. Charity would have read Nechama Tec's book on which the movie is based.  Victor Panchenko, the Russian commander, is not shown as a villain in the movie.  Indeed, he was not.  Unlike many Russian partisans, Panchenko accepted Jewish able-bodied men into his group.  And once he esteblished contact with the Belski brothers, he sent the non-fighters their way.  If Mr. Charity would have read the book, he would know that Panchenko was very helpful to the Belski brothers.  He helped the Jewish partisans establish contact with the Soviet High Command, which was necessary for treating the wounded and getting supplies.  Jewish fighters were participating in missions together with the Russians, missions ordered by the Soviet Command.  And Panchenko made use of Jewish camp as a base, using skilled laborers weapons maintenance and repair and medical professionals for treating lightly wounded.  This actually alluded to in the movie, when the newcomers to the camp are asked what they can do.  And, by the way, Panchenko punished anti-Semites.  While Zus and some of his comrades did come back to the Belski camp, some other Jewish fighters stayed with Panchenko because they wanted to fight the Germans more actively as members of a more mobile Panchenko group.  Here is one more news flash for Mr. Charity: wanting to take the fight to the Nazis is a good thing.

Here is another lovely passage by Mr. Charity:

The movie is full of mud and muck, yet somehow Zwick sanitizes the things that matter most. In the most challenging scene, just as Tuvia turns a blind eye as his enraged fellow Jews beat a German prisoner to death, Zwick consistently pulls back from anything that might be too unpleasant or tasteless.

Mr. Ignoramus conveniently does not notice clearly visible SS insignia under the "poor" German's camouflage coat.  The fact that he was SS means that he was likely a member of one of the Einsatzgruppen, a special SS unit whose only purpose in life was to murder Jews.  So, what would Mr. Charity have Tuvia Belski do, shoot his fellow Jews in order to save an SS-man?  And what would partisans do with a POW?  Start a POW camp in the woods?  The circumstances were such that the German had to be killed anyway.  Or should they let him go, so that he would come back with his Einsatzkommando?  I personally would have preferred that the Nazi were thoroughly interrogated and then disposed of cleanly with a bullet to the back of his head.  But once the mob started beating on him there was no stopping them without shooting one of long suffering people whose loved ones were perhaps murdered by that SS-man.  It obviously was not worth it.  The ignorance and lack of historical perspective displayed by Tom Charity is staggering.  And he uses this episode to take another anti-Semitic potshot at those "murderous" Jews.  By the way, why is this scene more challenging than, let's say, the scene where Tuvia shoots Arkady, the man who challenged his command authority?  The man was a jerk, but at least he was on our side.  He was one of the Jews initially saved by the Belskis.  Could it be that Mr. Charity feels more sorry for the Nazi than for the Jew?  "His [Edward Zwick's - Eric-Odessit] heroes remain fundamentally unsullied," Mr. Charity laments.  He clearly would prefer to sully them.

There is also this idiotic passage:

Zwick's Hollywood liberal credentials are not in doubt, but his films have a surprisingly gung-ho undercurrent (they include such martial adventures as "The Last Samurai," "Glory," "The Siege," "Legends of the Fall" and "Courage Under Fire").

Tom clearly does not like plots where good guys are fighting the bad guys.  He must subscribe to the notion that "War never solves anything".  Well, I have to remind him that war did stop slavery, Nazism and Communism.  So, it did solve something.  And who cares about "Zwick's Hollywood liberal credentials"?  He probably does lean Left, but it does not matter.  He made a good movie, movie I can relate to.  Older generation of my family lived this story.  I know people who were participants in similar stories.  And he made a movie about Holocaust where the Jews take up guns, shoot back and defend themselves, killing the Nazis.  That's better than all the "Schindler's Lists" and "Pianists" combined.

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Defiance, resistance and support of Israel - picture corrected

Correction: in the picture identifying Rabbi Goldstein of Chabad of Poway the rabbi is misidentified.  Some people pointed out to me that the rabbi in the picture is actually Rabbi Leider.  Sorry about that.

Yesterday there was another demonstration by by Hamas supporters.  I wanted to counter it, but some of the supporters of Israel who are observant Jews would not be able to participate because of Shabat.  I went there anyway, just to see what was going on and to alert the local news organizations that there would be a pro-Israel demonstration today.  But the news weren't there, according to the cops at the scene they got tired of those Hamas supporters.  So I simply e-mailed the local news channels the information about our demonstration.  In the evening, as if we needed more inspiration for the action today (not really, I was pretty gung-ho as it was), my wife and I went to see the movie "Defiance".  The movie is based on a true story told by Nechama Tec about 4 Bielski brothers who organized a Jewish partisan band in Nazi-occupied Western Byelorussia and saved 1200 Jews.  The movie is very well made.  What makes the movie and the real story itself particularly good is the fact that in it the Jews actually shoot back, the same fact that continuously annoys the Left about Israel.  And so today we had a demonstration in support of the Jews who shoot back and defend themselves.  Despite the short notice we had relatively descent turn-out: between 50 and 100 people.  Doing your own demonstration is different from organizing a counter: you need more preparation and you need to have your own program for the rally.  Just standing somewhere with signs and flags might get boring.  We had a little bit of a program: we had fliers to give away, writing letters to Israeli soldiers, and a rabbi was putting tefillin on any Jewish man who wanted it.  Next time we should plan it better.  Of the local news channels only KUSI and NBC 7/39 showed up.  Once they have their coverage on their sites, I will link to it.  Below are some pictures from our rally.

There is our table with fliers.

Our crowd.

Some of our guys with signs.

Rabbi Goldstein from Chabad of Poway.  He was "the Water Rabbi" who distributed water to firefighter during the 2007 fires in San Diego.

Rabbi Mendy from Chabad of Poway.

Raj from India expressing solidarity with Israel and USA.  He remembers Mumbai and other atrocities of Islamist terrorists.

Our signs.

A Protest Warrior sign.

More of our signs.

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Success

What constitutes a successful counter-demonstration?  When you do this, your audience is not the people you are countering: you will never change their minds.  Your audience is general public.  So, in countering your opposition you are successful if you get a descent news coverage.  Fairly sizable crowd on your side is also pretty nice.  The best situation is when the bad guys (and is this particular situation the Hamas supporters really are the bad guys) show their true colors for the general public to see.  Well, San Diego Fox 5 Channel captured exactly that.  In their video segment they interviewed one of our guys.  He had just finished explaining to the reporter that the pro-Hamas people chants "From the river to the sea..." mean that they don't want peace, but rather the destruction of Israel.  And then, as if on cue, the Hamas supporters started chanting: "From the river to the sea..."  That is what I call "success".  See for yourself:

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Of Israel, media and "World Community"

A friend from Israel sent me a great article that describes the struggle Israel involved in, the media reporting on it, the "World Community" reactions to it, and frustration of all freedom-loving people, Jews and non-Jews alike, watching the news covering the events.  The article appeared originally as a post on an Israeli blog and has no title.  Since the author (her name is Julia) is originally from Russia, the whole blog, including the article, is in Russian.  For those willing and able to read the original article in the original Russian, please go ahead.  For the English-speaking audience, here is my translation:

You and your family came out of your house. You – let's say, personally you – the head of family, your wife, two kids (5 and 10 years old), and your dogie, the beloved poodle, affectionate and silly. You go about your business and suddenly you are attacked by a bunch of wild dogs. One of them jumps on the poodle, the second brought down the little one and it looks like it is going to gnaw through his throat, while your wife attempts to drive it off, the third one got the oldest kid up into the tree and keeps barking below. A few more large and sharp-toothed dogs approach the place of struggle from several different sides. The most aggressive of them bites into your foot. You pull out a gun and shoot – first the one biting you, to get it out of the way, then – the one tormenting the child, afterwards – the one eating your poodle, and finally you shoot the one waiting for its prey under the tree. The rest scatter, but not too far, and they are standing at some distance roaring threateningly. You shoot one more dog, it falls, the rest runs away, now for good.
You help your wife the youngest child to get up, help the oldest to climb down from the tree; alas, the poodle is already beyond help. You call the ambulance which takes you all to the ER, where you, your wife and the bitten child get stitches and prescriptions for 40 injections into the stomach. At home you turn the TV on, and an anchor reports: “Today in Town N Mr. M. shot to death several vagrant dogs”. And a picture – a puddle of blood at the place of the fight, but, as far as you remember, the blood belongs to your poodle. Another news broadcast clarifies that one of the killed dogs, the one that was biting your foot, was an eight-months old puppy (never mind that it was a puppy of mastiff, still, it was a baby), the second (the one that attacked your child) belonged to a prominent member of the community. The third dog, which was barking under the tree, was completely harmless, had never bitten anyone, although barked at everyone and everything with and without any reason. And only the fourth one, that tore the poodle apart, was rabid. The anchors ask various experts some questions. The talking heads are talking on.
“Certainly,” says one, fine looking and well-fed, “dogs should not be killed. Moreover, in such unequal battle. Indeed, they do not have pistols, they honestly fight with their teeth. Furthermore, they were really hungry. It is possible to understand them”.
“Sooo,” the second, shaggy and bearded, guy timidly inserts, “but, what do you expect? For Mr. M. to bite them back?”
“No,” answers the third talking head, the bald and passionate one, “absolutely not. It was necessary to kill the rabid dog, but why the rest had to suffer? The puppy didn't really do anything at all. It bit his foot, big deal! You don't kill for this! The barking one also was not going to bite anyone. And the prominent citizen might now sue. For the murder of his dog”.
“Yes, but how do you determine, which one is rabid and which is not, in this extreme situation?” the news anchor asks.
“That's why we are human, so we can distinguish between the rabid and not,” the bald one replies authoritatively, “we must not stoop to the level of animals. Nothing there was extreme. Indeed, everybody survived, did they not?”
“But wait,” interferes the representative of the society of the protection of animals. “How is it? Is it possible in general to shoot the living things? They trust us! We should feed them, protect them, not shoot them!”
You are amazed listening to this crap, then you go on-line and see the headlines: “Shooting of defenseless animals!” one site screams. And a photo with a puddle of blood on asphalt. “Unprovoked attack on dogs!” another site shouts. And a picture of a cute puppy face. “Let us protect our beloved pets!” the third one says, not to be too far behind the first two. And in the photograph – muzzle of an automatic weapon pointing toward a reader. You go to your own blog and describe events from your point of view. You don't have photographs from the scene of the incident, so you get your camera out and take pictures of your child with stitches on the hands; then you post the photographs as an illustration. In the comments there are many of those who sympathize with you, but there are also home-grown investigators and moralists.
“Photoshop,” they confidently declare about the photograph.
“In general, why do you walk around with a handgun?” they question. Your answer “If not for that gun, we would not be alive now” follows this remark: “Well, great, then the dogs would remain alive”. To the observation “They killed our dog too” they with the knowledge on the matter declare: “This still needs to be verified, who killed your dog, you must have hit it yourself accidentally”.
“You kill puppies!”
“You should not live in dangerous neighborhood!”
“You should be taking another road!”
“If you fed them, they would not touch you!”
To the last slogan, something like “Death to the dog-killers!”, you answer exhaustingly: “Get lost, you, idiot”. The commenter gleefully rubs his hands and screams: “Look, how aggressive he is! Why are you so aggressive?” Yes, really Why do you think?

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Protest Warrior lives!

Although technically today's counter of the pro-Hamas rally in Balboa Park was not an official San Diego Protest Warrior action, it was in spirit of the San Diego Chapter of Protest Warrior.  We met at the statue of El Cid in front of the Art Museum and the proceeded to the fountain in front of the Science Museum, where all the action was.  Our turn-out was surprisingly good: News 8 reported about equal crowds on both sides, which it probably was.  Although, initially we had slightly more people.  Both sides just stood there and shouted at each other, but generally it was pretty peaceful.  We tried to keep a distance of several feet between us and the pro-Hamas people in order to keep the police happy.  The cops were trying to maintain neutrality but, as often in these situations, had their sympathies on our side.  Apparently at one point one woman from the Hamas side started choking on something and was saved by a Jewish doctor from our crowd.  A cop present at that scene commented: "That's about sums it up".  I hope I will be able to get more details of that particular episode.  Overall it went pretty good, and we all had some fun.  The only downside was that we left after the Hamas guys did their march because we thought that they were done.  Turns out, they stayed.  But they did not stay unopposed: some of our guys showed up late for the main thing and ended up being our 2nd shift.  So, it all worked out.  Below are some pictures and videos that I took.

These are 2 crowds with some distance in between.

Our crowd looks bigger.

Note conspicuous absence of American flags on their side.

More of us and them.

Us from the back.

We chant.

They teach their kids to hate while they are young.

San Diego Fox 5 TV crew.

Below are the short videos I took with my camera.  When we were chanting, we were at disadvantage: the Hamas guys had a couple of megaphones, but we had just our voices.  Still, we managed.  For those who still has illusions that the Hamas crowd wants 2 peaceful democratic states, Arab and Jewish, living side by side, pay close attention to the Hamas crowd chants.  Their chants about "From the river to the sea..." should put an end to any illusions about their peaceful intentions.

Finally, some of our signs.  They are pretty self-explanatory.

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It's about time

What Israel is now doing regarding the rocket attacks by Hamas from Gaza should have been done a couple of years ago, right after the Israeli civilians were removed from Gaza and the first rockets started raining down on Sderot.  But it is better late than never.  Here is the primer explaining what is happening and why:

Defending Israeli citizens from terrorist fire

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  A quarter of a million Israeli citizens have been living under incessant terror attacks from the Gaza Strip with thousands of missiles fired over the past eight years.

  
  


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  These missiles have been described as "home made" by the media. They are, in fact, deadly. Hamas has in its possession longer range Katyushas and Grad-type missiles which can cause devastation such as that on Monday 29 December as one Israeli was killed and 14 injured in a Grad attack on Ashkelon.

  
  

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  Israel left Gaza in 2005, giving Palestinians the chance to run their own lives. Despite this, more than 6300 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel since then.

  
  


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  During the past year alone, more than 3000 rockets and mortars have been launched into Israel.

  
  


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  Since the end of a formal ceasefire (during which terror attacks continued) with Hamas came to an end on Dec. 19, more than 170 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israeli civilians including a barrage of some 80 missiles on Dec. 24 alone. 

  
  


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  As US President-elect Obama stated during a visit to Sderot five months ago, "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing."

  
  


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  No other country in the world would have exercised the amount of restraint that Israel has shown for the past several years without responding.

  
  

Read the whole thing.  And, in case someone thinks that this is just pro-Israel point of view, here is what Egyptian Foreign Minister had to say on the subject (thanks to LGF):

This is the proof that there are sane politicians in the Arab world, which in turn gives me hope that ultimately peace is possible.

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My predictions for Obama Administration

These are just quick predictions without a lot of links.

1. The war.

The War on Terror, more properly known as the War against Islamo-Fascism, consists of 2 major overt parts, which are often separated by the Left: Afghanistan and Iraq.  I do not see any major changes in the action in Afghanistan, although there might be an escalation.  Al Qaeda will be kept at bay there, but unlikely completely defeated without any major action in the Afghan-Pakistan border region by either Pakistani or our military.

Iraq is a different matter.  Iraq has been largely pacified, thanks to the Surge for which neither Bush nor McCain got any credit.  Now it will be possible to drastically reduce the troop level there.  The bases will remain, but roughly around 16 months from Obama taking office most of the troops will be brought home or redeployed to Afghanistan.  It will happen roughly around 16 months from Obama taking office because that is what he promised.  Obama will proclaim that he brought the troops home.  It would have happened under any President, but Obama will take and get the credit for it.

2. Iran.

There will be no major change in the policy on Iran.  We might see some low level diplomatic contacts.  We might also see some nukes pointed to Iran, in case they do attack Israel.  Iran will get the Bomb, unless the Israelis bomb their nuclear sites and win some time that way.  There will be no effort to support the opposition in Iran, so no Iranian regime change during the Obama Administration.

3. Israel.

Amid the proclamations of undying support for Israel, the pressure to just take the hits from her enemies will increase dramatically.  If Israel does bomb Iran, she will be condemned by the whole world.  That will include the United States as well, although this country will not be as loud as everybody else.  The Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear sites will be used by some politicians as a justification to push for reduction of the American aid to Israel, and they may, or may not, succeed in it.  On the brighter side, the potential unfriendliness of the Obama Administration might untie Israel's hands, which will be a good thing.

4. Economy.

If the new administration largely stays out of the economy, it will probably recover within 6 months.  It's not that bad anyway, my job-searching experience this December is a testament to that.  The problem is the credit crunch, which will probably dissipate in 6 months.  But then, I am not an economist, so what do I know?  I mean, other than having 2 job offers 10 days after being laid off?

I don't think Obama Administration will do much, except maybe allow the Bush tax cuts to expire.  That will probably reduce the potential growth of the economy, but will likely not stop it.

5. Health Care.

The subject of Health Care is the one on which I often part ways with my fellow Republicans.  So far I never supported what the Democrats have proposed on the subject because their proposals often tend to introduce a large government component into the health care system and try to make it like Canadian system, and based on my information this does not work.  But some of the Obama's proposals on Health Care do make sense.  I definitely don't see anything wrong with selling already existing government insurance like Medi-Cal or the Congressional insurance plan to the general public and making it compete with the private insurance plans.  I also don't think people should be allowed to choose not to buy some health insurance for themselves and their families.  That is because this is not the choice they make.  It would be if in case of an accident those people would simply be left to die.  But they are not, and frankly I don't think a civilized society should allow people to die if they don't have the money to pay for their care and no charity comes along in time.  Thus, people who "choose" not to buy health insurance are actually sticking everybody else with the bill.  So, if they "choose" not to buy the insurance, the premium for their accidental coverage should be deducted from their paycheck or paid along with taxes.

6. The bottom line.

It's not that bad.  We just need to prevent the cult of personality from getting too bad.  It is frankly getting ridiculous with a bunch of books by Obama and about Obama prominently displayed in the book stores and new calendars with Obama quotes being sold.  But hopefully it will be limited to that and will dissipate pretty soon.  We also need to make sure that Obama's more sinister ideas, like his "civilian national security force" do not go through.  Hopefully nothing drastic will happen in the first 4 years, and with some luck we'll get someone more reasonable into the White House in 2012.

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My daughter's 1st competition

On December 14 my older daughter had her 1st figure skating competition.  She even took 1st place and got a trophy.  Of course, all the kids were separated into the groups of 1 or 2 kids.  My daughter was only one in her group, so she took the 1st place in the group of one.  I understand that this was done in order to encourage the 1st-time competitors and prevent them from being too shy to perform on the ice.  Still, I think it would have been better if they were in the groups of 3 kids, so there would have been some real competition, even though everyone would still get a trophy.  But we all did enjoy the experience.  Here is the video:

My little figure skater used my favorite song for her program:

My daughter have already picked the music for her next program.  Let the record show that I did not suggest another Andrews Sisters song: it was entirely her idea:

Although, I do have to admit that I did have some influence on my daughter's taste in music.

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Laid off - Updated

Update:

I am putting this update at the top because the rest of this post is not very relevant any longer.  It looks like I am starting a new job on 1/5/2009.  It is a medical equipment company.  I've been fascinated by the medical electronics ever since I graduated from college, so now is my chance to design some of it.  Under the circumstances I would prefer working for a defense company in order to contribute more directly to the war effort, but unfortunately it did not work out that way.  Still, I am quite happy about this new job.

There is also a career milestone for me.  For me this is the first job ever when knowing someone who knew someone actually help me to get the job, or get an interview, to be precise.  This means that my professional network is finally starting to help.  Here is what happened:

I actually sent my resume to this company back in September.  But it is a big company, so I never heard anything.  But after I got laid off I gave my resume to an Applications Engineer from a company whose chips I use (I should have done it back in September).  This guy had a meeting with some engineers from a company where I am going to work and passed my resume over to them.  They called me for an interview, and I got a job.  I actually had an offer from another company as well, so I could choose where I wanted to go.  So, there are jobs out there, just look at Monster.com.

The downside of this all is that I am not getting more time to blog after all.

Right before Thanksgiving I posted about a lay-off at my work.  Back then I was not affected, although I knew that things weren't good, so I was looking for another job.  Well, another lay-off has happened just this Tuesday.  This one affected me: I am now out of a job.  The situation is not terrible: there are jobs out there, just look at Monster.com.  But I can use all the help I can get, so I am posting my resume on my blog.  I am posting it as a separate page on this site, as well as in PDF format.  I am not showing my contact information on this version of my resume: this political blog is open to the general public, so it is probably not a good idea to have my home address, e-mail and phone numbers displayed for everybody to see.  Your comments reach me through my e-mail, and the separate page makes it easier to reach me through comments.  If you know anybody in need of an Electrical Engineer (Hardware Engineer, Electronics Engineer etc.), please direct them to my blog.  If you request a copy of my resume in the Word format with all the contact information, please use your work e-mail, so I know that it is a legitimate company looking for an engineer.  Thanks in advance for all the help.

On the brighter side, I will probably have some more time to blog, between looking for a job and doing all the honey-dos my wife assigns me now.

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Only in America!

This year my wife and I decided to put up some holiday decorations on our house for Christmas season.  But, since we are Jewish, we were looking for Hanukkah decorations.  One site we found is called "Christmas Central".  And it has a wide variety of Hanukkah decorations.  But it is the phrase at the top of this page that struck me as quintessentially American:

Christmas Central offers a wide variety of judaica decorations!

That is why I make it a point to say "Merry Christmas!" to my Christian friends.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

This becomes my annual Thanksgiving post.

Thanksgiving is a quintessentially American holiday.  So, what am I thankful for?  I am thankful for my family, for my wonderful wife and 2 beautiful girls.  I am also thankful for the generally pretty good life I have.  But who should thank for all this?  The religious people thank G-d for all their blessings.  But I am not religious enough in order to do that.  And then it dawned on me.  I should thank this wonderful country called United States of America and its wonderful people.

So, thank you, America, for existing, for being a beacon of freedom in the world where freedom is far from being commonplace.  Thank you for making freedom your “national idea”, if you will.

Thank you, American Armed Forces, past and present, for ensuring our safety and, as my kids would put it, "fighting the bad guys".  It is you, who ensures our freedom and wonderful opportunities this country provides.

Thank you, America, for accepting me as your own.  You welcomed me, my family and friends and made us all Americans, part of your great people.  You accept anybody who is willing to be accepted.  You made acceptance and tolerance part of your ideology too.

Finally, thank you, America, for defending “liberty and justice for all” all over the world.  Your young people volunteer to go and fight for what’s right and moral.  If I were 20 years younger I would have joined them (lame excuse really, but that’s the only one I have).  Winston Churchill once said: “The Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after they had exhausted all other possibilities”.  He knew what he was talking about.  It is only natural to try “all other possibilities”: people always look for easy solutions.  But in the end Americans do the right thing, no matter what the cost, for doing the right thing is a part of American ideology too.

Thank you, America.

This is a modified WW2 poster.  The modern American soldiers in Iraq were added to the original by the San Diego Chapter of Protest Warrior.

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Lay-off at my work

Last Friday we had a lay-off at my work.  I am still working, but some people unfortunately lost their jobs.  One of them is a nice lady named Donna.  She is a very good PCB designer.  With her permission I decided to post her resume on my blog.  She is very good at what she does.  I, as a Hardware Engineer, had to work with her a lot.  She often knew where to place components and how to route signals even before I gave her instructions.  She is also very resourceful and was often find information necessary to complete her tasks on the Internet.  Additionally, Donna can do some mechanical design.  So, if you are in the electronics business, please take a look at her resume.  I highly recommend her.  She can be contacted via e-mail: djperry.pcbdesigner@gmail.com.

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A force just as powerful as the military, ...

... but not under military chain of command.  That is one of Obama's proposals.  Little Green Footballs mentioned it here and linked to an article on the subject.  But rather than reading quotes of Obama, take a look at this video of Obama talking about it himself:

In history there was a force that was just as powerful and well funded as the military, but not reporting to the military chain of command.  In fact, it often was disliked by the regular military.  Its name could be translated as "Protective Squadron" from its original language.  In the original language it was called "Schutzstaffel".  Its abbreviation SS is much better known.  And it indeed was just as powerful as the Wehrmacht.  It even had its own armored divisions.  But it did not have its own air force: the SS fierce ideological convictions were no substitute for skills required for combat pilots.  Still, the question remains: what exactly are Obama's plans for this "civilian national security force"?

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Camp of Labor and Rest

That was a euphemistic name of the camp we were sent to when I finished 7th grade of school back in Odessa, in the former Soviet Union.  We were sent to a collective farm to work in the fields for a week (or was it 2 weeks?).  At the end of the school year we were required to write a letter of "request" to be sent to this camp.  The letter was dictated to us in class.  That was something we came to call "voluntary-mandatory", meaning that while "on paper" the required activity was voluntary, we really were not given any choice in the matter.  Prior to 7th grade we were required to help in school with cleaning and repairs.  Keep in mind that all that was cutting into summer vacation, so nobody was very anxious to participate in those activities.

Later, in college, we were sent to a collective farm for a month, usually in September.  At least then it did not cut into the vacation time, and we were paid (although, very little).  But it did cut into our studies, so part of the material had to be skipped.

So, why am I talking about it now?  Because it looks like the "voluntary-mandatory" practices of my old country, that I thought I left behind and that I thought my children will never experience, are catching up with me.  Enter President-Elect Barack Obama.  On his transition site there is a section called "America Serves":

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by setting a goal that all middle school and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year and by developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive (emphasis mine - Eric-Odessit) a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

Now, you might notice that it says "setting a goal", which does not sound too ominous.  However, it appears that the wording has changed: it used to say "require".  Original wording is available here.  There is also further analysis of this proposal here and here.  Do follow these links: they are very useful for understanding what might happen.  There is also another article describing Rahm Emanuel's, Obama's new Chief of Staff, views:

"...Here's how it would work. Young people will know that between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, the nation will enlist them for three months of civilian service. They'll be asked to report for three months of basic civil defense training in their state or community, where they will learn what to do in the event of biochemical, nuclear or conventional attack; how to assist others in an evacuation; how to respond when a levee breaks or we're hit by a natural disaster. These young people will be available to address their communities' most pressing needs."

To be fair, there is an argument to be made that the community service requirement is not necessarily a bad idea.  In fact it already exists to a certain extent on local level: my wife had to do it in order to get enough credit for acceptance into the SDSU Nursing School.  Furthermore, there is an argument to be made that even Rahm Emanuel's idea of compulsory civil service has some merit, especially during war time.  However, these ideas have a lot of similarities with the old Soviet Union, to which I have to point out.  Additionally, these ideas have a potential of generating some "buyer's remorse" among the young people who were so enthusiastic about Obama's Presidency.

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After elections

It's been awhile since I last posted anything.  Unfortunately I was too busy to post.  Now I have a little bit of time, so I can describe my reaction to disastrous (for my side) election results.  There is a number of reasons why I am extremely worried about the new administration.  The most important one is not the one Obama directly responsible for: the cult of personality.  On the other hand, I found (via LGF) a great article by Steven Den Beste:

...In the mean time, those of us who didn't want Obama to be president have to accept that he is. And let's not give in to the kind of paranoid fever dreams that have consumed the left for the last 8 years. Let us collectively take a vow tonight: no "Obama derangement syndrome". Obama is a politician. He isn't the devil incarnate.

So what are the good sides of what just happened?

1. It is no longer possible for anyone to deny that the MSM is heavily biased. The MSM have been biased for decades but managed an illusion of fairness. That is no longer possible; the MSM have squandered their credibility during this campaign. They'll never get that credibility back again.

2. Since the Democrats got nearly everything they hoped for in this campaign, they'll have no excuses and will have to produce. They'll have to reveal their true agenda -- or else make clear that they don't really have any beyond gaining power.

3. Every few decades the American people have to be reminded that peace only comes with strength. The next four years will be this generation's lesson.

Now, a few predictions for the next four years:

1. Obama's "hold out your hand to everyone" foreign policy is going to be a catastrophe. They'll love it in Europe. They're probably laughing their heads off about it in the middle east already.

2. The US hasn't suffered a terrorist attack by al Qaeda since 9/11, but we'll get at least one during Obama's term.

3. We're going to lose in Afghanistan.

4. Iran will get nuclear weapons. There will be nuclear war between Iran and Israel. (This is the only irreversibly terrible thing I see upcoming, and it's very bad indeed.)

5. There will eventually be a press backlash against Obama which will make their treatment of Bush look mild. Partly that's going to be because Obama is going to disappoint them just as much as all his other supporters. Partly it will be the MSM desperately trying to regain its own credibility, by trying to show that they're not in his tank any longer. And because of that they are eventually going to do the reporting they should have done during this campaign, about Obama's less-than-savory friends, and about voter fraud, and about illegal fund-raising, and about a lot of other things.

and 6. Obama will not be re-elected in 2012. He may even end up doing an LBJ and not even running again.

Do read it all.  I agree with Steven Den Beste that there should be no "Obama Derangement Syndrome".  But I don't share his expectation that the media will turn on him.  I am also not as optimistic about Republican 2012 prospective.  I do hope that Obama lied through his teeth during the primaries in order to get the nomination.  That is because his promises were so far to the left, that any deviation from them would necessarily move Obama closer to the center.  In the meantime, those of us who disagree with Obama, while hoping that he would do well, should not hesitate to point out where we think he is wrong.  And while I am not going to say that Obama is not my President, as many of the Left said about Bush, my "Nobama" sticker is not coming off my car.  I might even add "Don't blame me..." sticker to it.  I do hope that all the dire predictions that I had and that Steven Den Beste has in his article won't come true.  But I do think that we are in for a rough ride for the next 4 years.

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How to cause a financial meltdow?

Well, one of the ways is to force the banks to give mortgage loans to people who can't pay, providing the government guarantees to the banks, and then simply wait for the borrowers to default on the loans.  A fellow Protest Warrior sent me this video:

Do you know who yells "Catch that thief!" the loudest in the marketplace?  It is usually the thief himself.  That old truth is still true.

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