Mom blogs! (Sort of.)

Well, my mother (Susan in "Our Cast") finally had something she wanted to blog about but was bewildered by Blogger (she's an email whiz, though)... So, on Mom's behalf:

From opinionjournal.com's Best of the Web:

Great Moments in Public Education
Daniel Lipsman, a retired schoolteacher in New York City, is in trouble with the law--for sending his daughter to school. The Daily News reports 15-year-old Angela "has earned her associate's degree and is on her way to a bachelor's--but she can't have the sheepskins because she never got a high school diploma."

It gets worse: "The gifted girl's proud dad is being investigated by child protective services for alleged educational neglect--for letting his daughter go to college." A judge in Albany ruled that "Angela was not legally free to skip high school" and upheld a state Education Department diktat that imprisons children in high school until they turn 16 and doesn't allow them to get an equivalency diploma until age 17. Angela's father says he'll "go to prison before my daughter goes to a city high school."

Why this caught my eye was that I began my high school career at Jamaica High School, a NYC high school, but I left after my junior year. If I had continued as a student at Jamaica High School, I would have been [apparently illegally] graduated at age 15 (or 15-1/2 at the latest). I had skipped the 4th grade and was in the 2 year SP (7th, 8th and 9th grades in 2 years). I started 10th grade at 12-1/2 (usual age for a high school sophomore is 15). My mother was pushing me to graduate midway through my senior year, just following what would have been my 15th birthday (in December), and then had plans for me to do college in 3 years and go on to medical school. (My thought at the time, which was the late 50's - "Who would go to a 22 year old lady doctor?" Remember, this was pre-Doogie Howser.) Anyway, after a year or so being a social outcast at Jamaica on account of my age, I was totally miserable, so, after completing my junior year at Jamaica, I went to a private boarding school for two years, essentially repeating 11th grade and then finishing 12th grade, so that I didn't end up starting college until I had reached the ripe old age of 16-1/2.

Well - we know what Shakespeare would have said: "If this, Sir, be the law, Sir, then the law, Sir, is an ass!"

Why The Arrow Is So Good...

The Jerusalem Post has an article today about the Ten Greatest Israeli Inventions.

They've got good ones listed, like the Uzi submachine gun, drip irrigation, the swallowable camera (for looking at the GI tract), and the Internet firewall. But there's quite a quote from the inventor of the Arrow anti-missile defense system. See, the way the Arrow works is by zooming up near the incoming bad-guy's missile and exploding, sending shrapnel into the bad-guy's missile and destroying it. This method of defense is especially effective as a deterrent against non-conventional weapons:

The idea is that the explosion takes out the enemy missile and any nonconventional payload it carries; if nuclear, chemical, or biological substances remain, the physics are such that it would land on enemy states. "The shit will go back to the Arabs. This is a very nice feature of the system. We didn't create it, but it's very nice," Raviv says. (emphasis added)

One reason, perhaps, for the reticence of Saddam Hussein to lob missiles at Israel this time around...

Great minds...

...think alike...

Wow. Anti-Semitism in a British newspaper.

(sarcasm) Hard to believe. (/sarcasm)

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, Professor Volokh notes some disturbingly casual anti-semitism on the part of Richard Ingrams in the Observer.

Ingrams writes:

I have developed a habit when confronted by letters to the editor in support of the Israeli government to look at the signature to see if the writer has a Jewish name. If so, I tend not to read it.

As Prof. Volokh notes,

Let me see: Has the writer "developed a habit" of "not . . . read[ing]" letters by men that relate to relations between the sexes? Or letters by women? Or does he ignore letters by blacks, whites, and Asians on race relations? Does he ignore letters on the subject of homosexuality by people whom he knows to be anti-gay, or whom he suspects of belonging to mostly anti-gay religious groups? After all, each must have their own axe to grind, so their positions are worthless, no?

Volokh goes on to thank "reader George Vardalos for the pointer, which I would never have followed if I thought the article was about Cyprus."

The Left's Anti-Semitism

Today's Jewish World Review included a column by Fiamma Nirenstein which is one of the strongest condemnations I've read in a long time of the anti-semitism to be found in modern leftist ideology. I encourage you to read the entire column, but here are some excerpts:

The Left blessed the Jews as the victim "par excellence," always a great partner in the struggle for the rights of the weak against the wicked. In return for being coddled, published, filmed, considered artists, intellectuals and moral judges, Jews, even during the Soviet anti-Semitic persecutions, gave the Left moral support and invited it to cry with them at Holocaust memorials. Today the game is clearly over. The left has proved itself the real cradle of contemporary anti-Semitism.

. . .

On the front pages of European newspapers Sharon munches Palestinian children and little Jesuses in cradles are threatened by Israeli soldiers. This new anti-Semitism has materialized in unprecedented physical violence towards Jewish persons and symbols, coming from organizations officially devoted to human rights. Its peak occurred at the United Nations summit in Durban when anti-Semitism officially became the banner of the new secular religion of human rights, and Israel and Jews became its official enemy.

. . .

Why is the war on terrorism often looked upon as a strategic problem that the world still must solve (look at the US war against Afghanistan and Iraq) and Israel is treated like a guilty defendant for fighting it? Is it not anti-Semitism, when you act as if Jews must die quietly? Why is Israel officially accused by the human rights commission in Geneva of violating human rights, while, China, Libya, Sudan, have never ever been accused? Why has Israel been denied a fixed place in regional groups in the UN while Syria sits in the Security Council? Why can everybody join a war against Iraq except Israel, despite the fact that Saddam has always threatened Israel with complete destruction? When sovereign states and organizations threaten death to Israel, why does nobody raise the question at the UN? Has Italy been threatened by France or Spain like those Iranian leaders who openly say that they will destroy Israel with an atomic bomb? And what is said when a large part of the world newspapers, TV, radio and school textbooks recommend kicking the Jews out of Israel and killing them all over the world using terrorist bombers? The international community doesn't consider this a problem. Israel is an "unterstate", denied the basic rights of every other state, to exist in honor and peace. The Jewish state is not equal.

. . .

Another document, this time a letter by a group of professors at the University of Bologna "to their Jewish friends", was published with a very large number of signatures.

Here is an excerpt: "We have always considered the Jewish people an intelligent and sensitive one because they have been selected (that's right, selected!) by the suffering of persecution and humiliation. We have school friends and some Jewish students whom we have helped and educated, taking them to high academic levels, and today many of them teach in Israeli universities. We are writing because we feel that our love and appreciation for you is being transformed into a burning rage… we think that many people, also outside the university, feel the same. You have to realize that what was done to you in the past, you are now doing to the Palestinians… if you continue on this path, hatred for you will grow throughout the world".

The letter is an excellent summary of all the characteristics of the new anti-Semitism. There is the pre-Zionist definition of the Jewish people as one that suffers, has to suffer by nature, a people bound to bear the worst persecutions without even lifting a finger, and is, therefore, worthy of compassion and solidarity.

. . .

The Jews became indispensable for the left: look at the passionate and paternalistic tone of the Bologna professors, as they seem to plead: "Come back, our dear Jews. Be ours again. Let us curse Israel together and than take a trip together to the Holocaust memorials."

Very strong stuff. But true.

Ode to blogging...

Kathleen Parker sings the praises of blogging in her column today.

If not for blogs, Howell Raines might still be editor of The New York Times; Trent Lott might still be majority leader of the U.S. Senate. And we might never have learned the name of "whatshername," Blue-Dress Girl, Lewinsky.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Howard Dean's gonna blog...

Well, personally, I think Howard Dean is the greatest thing to happen to the Republican party since George McGovern. But in a testament to blogging, he will be guest blogging on Stanford Professor Lessig's blog beginning today.
He still hasn't posted yet, but I actually think that's kind of cool. Anyone want to take bets on whether or not Dean himself is actually doing the blogging?

Cost of Government Day

Hey, whaddaya know! Today was Cost of Government Day! The average American worked the whole year up to today to pay taxes.

That's horrifying -- more than half the year!

Sinking was an accident.

During the Six Day War in 1967, Israel bombed an American spy ship called the USS Liberty, sinking it, and killing a number of American servicemen.

Israel apologized almost immediately, stating that they believed the ship to be Egyptian, and paid compensation to the families of the servicemen, but conspiracy theorists have, for years, insisted that Israel knowingly attacked a U.S. ship.

The United States National Security Agency this week released transcripts of conversations between the Israeli pilots and their base, which were recorded by an NSA spy plane at the time. The transcripts bear out Israel's version of the story.

Only at 3:07 were the pilots first informed that the ship might not have been Egyptian at all: Hatzor told them that if they found Arabic-speaking survivors, they should be taken to El-Arish, but if they found English-speaking survivors, they should be taken to Lod. "Clarify by the first man that you bring up, what nationality he is, and report to me immediately," the supervisor instructed, according to the transcript. "It's important to know."

Thanks to Bernsteinblog for the pointer.

Update: The NSA has released the audio and transcripts on their website.

Their Hogs Are Kosher...

Check this out! The Star Of Davidson Motorcycle Club for Jewish bikers.

From their website:

Star of Davidson is a group of mostly Jewish Harley Davidson Motorcycle Enthusiasts. Put another way: If you run into legal, medical, or financial problems on your Harley, we are a good group to have around.

Update: I also just found the Chai Riders.

"Hulk Take Viagra!"

Heh.

I may be crazy, but so are you.

Some of you may recall my angst over throwing out an old computer. Well, it turns out I'm not the only crazy one.

And another one!

We have yet another blogger joining us today -- Saul Safdieh, who will also be introducing himself (hopefully) will be blogging here as his busy school schedule (ahem.) allows...

Capitalism doesn't mean government helps business.

Bruce Bartlett has a good column today, noting, in a review of Raghuram G. Rajan's new book the very true observation of Adam Smith, that "businessmen could often be the free market's worst enemies, because they will sacrifice it in a minute for the sake of profits. Often, they enlist government as a co-conspirator, getting it to enact laws that restrain competition and raise prices, which benefits them, but hurts everyone else."

Bush's biggest blunder so far was the steel tariff. You want to kill an economy? Nothing quicker than increasing the price of steel. Another clever idea is to pay farmers not to grow food, because, as we all know, it's really good policy to make food more expensive.

What always bugs me is this basic misunderstanding of the fight. The fight isn't business against the consumer. The fight is capitalism and freedom against government interference in the market and socialism.

Milestone reached!

Yes, it's true. Today, The Born Loser published it's 1500th straight comic strip that wasn't funny!

A New Blogger Joins Us!

A new blogger will be joining KaufmaNet shortly -- Peter Braffman. I'll let him introduce himself, but he's a Kaufman family associate...

That sounds a bit like the Kaufmans are Cosa Nostra. That'd be interesting...

[Fade in on Stuart at the club, speaking to David over a fruit salad.]

DAVID

So it was Kotler, huh, Pop?

STUART

No, I knew it wasn't Kotler -- he never could have outfought Saul Safdieh, but I didn't know until today that it was Klapper the whole time...

Stupid Summer Associate Tricks.

The New Yorker has a little blurb about the Dumb Summer Associate of 2003 (at least so far) who managed to send an email to the entire underwriting department at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom saying that "I’m busy doing jack shit."

Whoops.

It's bad, and all, but, as the article notes, nowhere near as bad as the Dumb Summer Associate of 2001, the guy at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft who, after he was advised that he would not be receiving a permanent offer, wrote an email I fondly call the "I Never Want To Work as a Lawyer Anywhere Email." (I kept a copy of the original email as forwarded to me (and every other lawyer in New York) a couple of years ago, and re-reviewed it after reading this column. Boy, it's bad!)

Good thing he didn't tear the tag off his mattress, too.

An Oklahoma man was sentenced by what must be the most pissed off judge in existence to life in prison for spitting on a cop.

This is the flip side of the stupidity of "three strikes and you're out" which requires judges to sentence people to life in prison, regardless of the circumstances of the offenses.

Both are terrible results; I hope the governor of Oklahoma acts properly and commutes the sentence appropriately.

Sigh...

You know, I'm not normally one to rub it in, but I LOVE MY NEW CAR!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Back to your regularly scheduled blog.