...and a "Happy New Year" to all !!

So it is time to don our party hats, wrap neatly the bottle of good cheer we bring (and soon unwrap, to be served up...neat), and head off to celebrate the welcoming in of a new year.

2011 was not a great year for the United States of America.  But it was a pretty good year for this blog.  I'd like to thank the nearly 175,000 of you who stopped by to visit this little roadside stand on the internet super-highway this year.  That's a record for us, by far.  I am humbled, rather than inflated, when I see some of the hefty names and intellects that will on occasion link here; if I were to have any resolution all all for 2012, it would be to honor these people by trying to provide top-rate work on a daily basis, and try to avoid the steaming helpings of dreck that are occasionally served up.  We'll see how that works out...

Truthfully,  I appreciate each and every one of you who drops by to read, comment, link, or even snark, and I deeply hope this new year sees your fondest hopes and dreams realized.

I have one goal in 2012:  To see the regime of Barack Hussein Obama ended, and liberalism discredited for a generation.  With every passing day my faith grows stronger that my prayers will be answered.  But that has little to do with efforts on my part, and more to do with the mindset of my fellow Americans, who I cherish more and more with the passing of time - for their humility, their strength, and their intelligence.  May God bless us all in 2012.

So let's pop some bubbly on the eve of 2012 - not for the year that was, but for the year that lies ahead.

2012:  When everything finally changes...

Happy New Year!!

2012: A Good Year For..Israel? Some Facts & Some Prophecy

While anti-semitism may be on the rise worldwide - especially here in America, where liberal Jews debase their religion in order to use it as a cudgel against Republicans - the Jewish state is heading into the (secular) New Year with a renewed strength and limitless possibilities. Conrad Black writes in the New York Sun:

I think that Israel's prospects have never been brighter. The Arab powers are in complete disarray within and among each other. The Islamists may be gaining ground but all indications are that the Arab masses are finally becoming more skeptical about the endless recourse to the red herring of Israel by their leaders to distract them from the despotism and misrule that has been imposed upon them by theocracies and secular states alike throughout the post-colonial era.

Even if the Islamists shoulder aside the military in Egypt, only the military could return to a war policy against Israel and the Egyptian army won't do it. The hotheads can burn the Israeli flag in Tahrir Square in Cairo and even sack the Israeli embassy as they started to do last month, but no one is taking Egypt back to war with Israel.

 Least of all the Egyptian generals. No sense in being a "military leader" if you're whole military infrastructure is razed to the ground. They'll bluster, but they'll do it from secure bunkers.

And domestically? Well, Israel should be the envy of the world:

...West Bank prosperity continues to increase and violence in Israel is at a recent historic low. There have been large oil and natural gas discoveries just offshore in Israel; the problems of Europe are in distinct contrast to Israel's sharply rising levels of prosperity and economic growth. And the new state of South Sudan is decrying Arab racism, and Muslim racism generally against black peoples, and has cracked the solidarity of the Arab-led claque in international organizations which has turned many of those organizations into Israel-bashing fronts.  It is setting up its embassy in Israel in Jerusalem.

 Probably the only place you can find middle-class Arabs is in the "occupied" West Bank, ironically. That's why you see very little terror from the corner anymore. People raising their standards of living and enjoying peace are less likely to blow up their neighbors over ancient hatreds. I am sure more and more of them will get jobs in the Israeli oil operations, opportunities that will be lost to their terrorist brethren in Gaza. The Sudanese are smart enough to join the winning team...and it is interested in who is sticking with the losers.

Europe, for one. The United States (under Barack Obama), for another. Europe would kill to have the true peaceful multiculturalism of the Jewish state, as opposed to their Muslim ghettos, seething with rage. The United States would love to have Israel's 5% unemployment rate, as opposed to the over-regulated "green" economy that has been foisted upon us. How much of these two region's current anti-Israeli polices are based in jealousy - the same raw emotion that has launched so much antisemitism?

How ironic that the shining beacon of freedom, peace, and prosperity in the world has moved from the United States, and is now emanating from Jerusalem. Funny, I thought there was a book that predicted such a thing would happen...thought I read it somewhere...

Ah. Isaiah 51:3

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody
 Maybe...Isiaih 60?

Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn....
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
to you the riches of the nations will come...
Although you have been forsaken and hated,
with no one traveling through,
I will make you the everlasting pride
and the joy of all generations...
The least of you will become a thousand,
the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the LORD;
in its time I will do this swiftly.”

 Is the time...2012? Hmmm

Mitt Romney, And The "Electability" Myth...

This blog has not endorsed a primary candidate in the Republican primary, although we retain our original crush on Rick Perry, maintain a healthy respect for Michelle Bachmann (we love her, but we're not in love with her) and stand by our utter and complete disdain for Newt Gingrich.  And we view Mitt Romney with caution, wondering what's really behind that plastic-fantastic facade and slick haircut.

Over at Legal Insurrection, Professor Jacobson has been furiously waving the caution flags the last few days, trying to warn the party faithful that the Romney Train - gaining more and more passengers - could be heading full-speed for a brick wall, with the every-smiling visage of Barack Obama (and his $1B war chest) painted across it.  A few links:

We will pay the price for giving Romney a free pass

Don’t fall for Operation Psych Out

Romney's electability is overblown

It's the last one that I think is the key - if "electability" were a real thing, a radical liberal from Chicago would never have stood a chance in the primary, nor would a right-wing nut from California won the presidency in 1980.  It's about the party putting forward a candidate that best reflects their values, and then sending him out across the country to convince others that his plan of action is the right course for America.

And what record of "electability" does Mitt Romney have, exactly?  To answer that, I am reprinting a post from August 31st of this year:

Would You Start A 5-18 Pitcher In Game 7 of the World Series?

Because in 2012, we'll be well into a double-dip recession, the Arab Spring will have devolved into open warfare with Israel, and there will be social unrest in America.  And this time, it may not be simply senior citizens yapping at their congressmen at town halls.


And into this mess, when we need most a strong performance to help lead us from tyranny to triumph....we can choose one of the following starting pitchers for Game 7 :

- young upstart Michele Bachmann, more of a successful minor league player with a good inside fastball but questionable savvy, 

-Solid veteran Rick Perry, who's career indicates he can get it done irregardless of what dire circumstances surround him,

- or a lifetime 5-18 pitcher, who has spent most of his career pleading for a chance to get into the Big Game.

That losing pitcher is....Mitt Romney.  The 5-18 record represents his record in elections.  Jonathan Last on how The Man With No Constituency cannot seem to get it done, no matter how hard he tries, or how much he spends.

 

Let’s revisit Romney’s campaigns:

1994: MA Senate Republican primary: Romney 82%, John Lakian 18%

1994: MA Senate general election: Ted Kennedy 58%, Romney 41%

2002: MA Gubernatorial Republican primary: Romney runs unopposed

2002: MA Gubernatorial general election: Romney 50%, Shannon O’Brien 45%

2006: MA Gubernatorial primary: trailing in polls for the general election to Deval Patrick—a guy who’d never run for anything before—Romney declines to seek reelection. I’ll count this as a loss; you might be more charitable.

2007: Presidential primaries: I won’t go state-by-state, but here’s the breakdown: Romney won only three states where the vote was a straight-up primary. Each of these wins was in a place where he had enormous legacy advantages: Michigan, where his father had been governor; Massachusetts, where he had been governor; and Utah, which is overwhelmingly Mormon. (He also won 8 caucus states, though the organizing rules there are much less indicative of electoral strength.)

On other side of the ledger, Romney lost primaries in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, California, Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia, and Maryland. (He also lost a bunch of caucus states, but we won’t count those against him since we’re discounting his caucus wins.)

Which means that in the 2008 cycle he went 3-16.

Combine that with the rest of his runs and you get a 17-year career average of 5-18. I don’t think you could find any other figure in politics who has run this far below the Mendoza line and still managed to get taken seriously as a presidential candidate. In fact, the only reason Romney gets taken seriously is his money. Strip away the $500M treasure room and the willingness to blow large chunks of his kids’ inheritance, and he’s Ron Paul without the ideological moorings and grassroots support....

Last goes further, pointing out that in his signature victory - governor of Massachusetts - he only received 49% of the vote, and that he blew $7 million running against Kennedy only to lose by 17 points.

This line is brilliant:

It’s funny that Romney’s line of attack on Perry seems to be that Perry is a “career politician” because he’s been in elective office since 1984. Well, Mitt Romney would have been a career politician too, if only voters would have let him. He’s been running since 1994. His real gripe about Perry is actually, “Hey, that guy wins all the time! No fair!”


So back to baseball.  Game 7 of the World Series, and you're the manager.  Do you put in the guy who has never -  ever - lost a game, or the loser with a laundry list of excuses and gripes, coming off of a 3-16 season?

That's not a decision I feel comfortable with.  Not unless all my other starters are unable to lift their pitching arms.  So when the clamor begins to get aboard Train Romney, let us do it with trepidation, and be sure that rather than our first choice, he is our last resort...

Rasmussen: Romney 45%, Obama 39%

What else needs to be said?  The incumbent, with all of his media love, can't even crack 40%.  How the hell is he going to get to the 50+1 mark?  Is there enough mud in his bucket?  In any bucket?  And how much of it can stick to a man like Mitt Romney?

Hot Air has this bit of data, which is even more interesting.  While the average American comes in ideologically at a 3.3 on a 1-5 scale (1 being uber-liberal, 5 being hard-right), we view Romney as a 3.5, just slightly to the right of us.  Obama comes in, however, at a 2.3 - which makes him further Left than any Republican is to the far right.

Again, can all the mud-chucking in the world change that datum?

It seems like we already figured out exactly who Barack Hussein Obama is. And so has Robert Stacy McCain:

He is a false prophet of an anti-religion, whose chief reason for existing is the destruction of America. He’s an un-remarkable piece of work, selected, groomed, credentialed and escorted to his current position not because he has shred #1 of merit in the traditional sense; rather, that he’s a reliable tool for the task of demolition.

He is the totalitarian poster child for the return to a pre-Enlightenment patronage system, where the wealth stays in the hands of the Cool People, with occasional bread & circuses, and regular games for the proles. There is some wealth redistribution, but absolutely no power redistribution whatsoever.

His is the moment in time where the Ruling Class decided that it was time to finish the Progressive project, before technology rendered it completely unattainable...

Somewhere, in our gut, we all know this. Some want the ruling class to win, thinking they will reap the spoils. But they are not the majority.

Shit, they ain't even the 40%...

Islamic Looting And Sacking Of Western Culture Continues Unabated...

No outrage from the "leaders" of the West, only a nervous silence that fails to conceal their fear:

As if further proof were needed of the fecklessness of Western civilization when confronting savagery, consider the destruction of the Institut d’Egypte in Cairo this month. Once again, the world watched helplessly while a horde of Muslim rioters wantonly annihilated a piece of history, and thus served warning that its cultural jihad against the West will advance until we stop it.

The Institut was founded by Napoleon in 1798 during his campaign in Egypt and Syria. Its ranks have included scholars from all walks of life, dedicated to researching Egyptian culture from antiquity to the present. The building, near Tahrir Square — the center of the protests that have marked the Arab Spring in Egypt — was filled with some 200,000 rare books and manuscripts. Gone now, burned in a fire, set off by a mob, that raged for more than 12 hours.

Was it simply the mindlessness of the mob? The episode catalogue of  The Simpsons  is filled with painfully humorous examples of the town of Springfield coming together (usually as a mob) to destroy edifices of science and knowledge - from the sacking of their Museum of Natural History, to the defacing of classic art, to the declaration that the local observatory be destroyed so that the town is never again threatened by a wayward comet...

Are the Egyptian Islamists as stupid as the denizens of the mythical Springfield, USA?

Or is this a deliberate attempt to destroy a symbol of Western knowledge, even one whose primary purpose was the study and preservation of Egyptian culture, history, and lore? If so, what would be the purpose?

To eradicate any Western influence on Islamist Egypt?

Or to rewrite history itself? If past is prologue...Muslim assaults and occupations of India over the centuries have always involved a "cultural cleansing" of captured areas, where all traces of Hinduism were wiped out. In Afghanistan under Taliban rule, the beards worked furiously to destroy Buddhist works of antiquity, while today in Jerusalem, Islamic "archaeologists" are constantly accused of conducting digs at the Temple Mount that are actually intended to erase traces of the Jewish Temple's altar, and sever its entire connection to Judeo-Christian history.

Win the future by erasing the past?  Use the sword and the torch to eliminate all traces of a historical record, and then claim your truth is the only truth, and it has ever been so?

If we don't fight - literally - to preserve our past, we will lose our future.  Our leaders have chosen cowardice and accommodation over confrontation, and in their attempt to buy another 15 minutes of peace for themselves, may very well have handed the future over to Islam.

Let's see how that works out for our children.

Syria: It would almost be funny - if those desperate to be free weren't being massacred...

The nations who make up the Arab League sure know how to placate liberals.  Recognize a problem, form a committee, give control of it to a crony, and get the "solution" you wanted all along.  Along with a free coat of whitewash when required.

I give you Syria:

The notion that the Arab League was going to stand up for human rights in Syria was always somewhat farcical.

As David Kenner reports in Foreign Policy, the head of the mission is none other than Sudanese General Mohammad Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi. Al-Dabi just happens to be the man who created the murderous janjaweed militias that were the principal perpetrators in the Darfur genocide.

His boss, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, for which al-Dabi also bears no small responsibility. He founded the janjaweed during his service as the regime’s head of military operations from 1996-1999. Since then he has served al-Bashir loyally in a number of different job, including some diplomatic postings.

The irony of sending a war criminal to try and stop the commission of war crimes is lost on the Arab League. It is also lost on Syria’s dissidents who continue to be killed and harassed by the government with the so-called monitors doing nothing.

Less irony, and more design, I reckon. Our good General, ignoring the gunfire and pools of blood around him:

Despite the reported violence, Gen Dabi told Reuters on Wednesday morning: "The situation seemed reassuring so far."

And Obama will nod his head, and point to "progress", and breath a sigh of relief that he doesn't actually have to, you know, actually "do" anything, now that a genocidal maniac has given him moral cover.

Liberalism...

Hanukkah Hotties, On The 8th & Final Night: The Girls Of The IDF

(note: looking back at last year's tribute, I didn't want to change a word, just the pictures. So it may sound familiar, but likely will not look (too) familiar...)

They'll kill you with a smile, or they'll just...kill you. But a society where every young girl spends two years serving their country with a huge automatic weapon is a society that will never go down without a fight, no matter how much Barack Obama pleads with them to do so.

No Israeli supermodels, or actresses, or entertainers on the last night of Hanukkah...Instead, I present your everyday Israeli female, beautifully attired in standard military fatigues, and all of them armed to the motherlovin' teeth:

No, darling, we salute you, for the work you have done in keeping the only true democracy in the godforsaken Middle East safe, and for allowing Jews worldwide to have a place, should they ever have the need, to call home. The 8th night of Hanukkah is all about you. We honor and thank you for your service in the name of freedom, and we admire you for still looking stunningly, achingly beautiful while doing it.

May God bless you, and keep you.

Happy Hanukkah....

Liberal Jews Descend Into Parody. The Rest Of Us Push Back...

Jen Rubin, on another piece of pro-Obama fluff in the Jewish newsies:

A piece by Allison Hoffman in the online magazine Tablet, titled “United Jewish Appeal,” is so crammed with ludicrous assumptions, half-truths and self-delusion, it is hard to know where to start a critique...

Rubin proceeds to tear Hoffman a new one, so to speak. I don't have the stomach, but I think one quote is illustrative of the "strength" of Hoffman's argument, as she tries to solidify Barack Obama's bona fides as the candidate of choice for the Jews:

At countless lunches at Axelrod’s favorite lunch spot in Hyde Park, Manny’s Deli, Obama had learned to order pastrami with mustard on rye.

That's the general tenor of the article. All broth, no matzoh ball.  But the positive that we can take out of this dreck  comes from the comments following the article -  they run about 4-1 against Obama, and against the entire prenmise of Hoffman's "argument":

This article is an unbelievable insult to the intelligence of American Jews–hell, it’s an insult to the intelligence of any American voter.
All about “emotional identification?” And “schmaltz?” SCHMALTZ?! What’s that supposed to mean? Reciting mangled yiddishisms and scamming the rube(n)s with old borscht belt stories is not going to get the vote.

....And like ALL other Americans, jews are not a single issue group. The economy blows, health care sucks, “education improvements” my tuchus…these are also issues that AMERICANS have with him that jews do too.
And finally, his “outreach” feels very insincere – and somewhat resentful of the fact that it needs to be done at all. Its a “its them not me” attitude that he brings forth..can he not humble himself and admit that he has made some mistakes?

....I voted for Obama in 2008 but will not this year.
Its not just a question of Israel, which his record is dismal. Its a bigger question of confusing friend with foe. The US is in a war against Islamists and if you don’t see that, you need to wake up. Know who your allies are. Know who your enemies are. Do not confuse the two.

....So, basically the article says that American Jews are idiots who don’t really understand whats going on. And if they did they would fall into line behind Obama like the Chinese under Mao.

Note how many of the writers above are self-identifying as Americans as much as Jews. Seems to me they are saying that despite the pressures they may be feeling from their leaders (both religious and secular) to toe the liberal party line - as Jews always do - these people see the danger to America - and Israel - as Americans, and will vote that way.

I may wind up being proud of my fellow Jews after all...

Maybe We Should Have Read The Tao Te Ching Before The 2008 Elections...

...it would have given us some insight into the man we were electing.

From the 63rd stanza of the ancient Chinese text (whose name can be translated as either "The Way", "The Way of Virtue", "The Way of Power"):


夫輕諾必寡信多易必多難是以聖人猶難之故終無難矣


In English:

He who promises lightly must be lacking in faith,
He who thinks everything easy will end by finding everything difficult.
Therefore the Sage, who regards everything as difficult,
Meets with no difficulties in the end.


The first sentence I consider to be fairly prophetic. The second I will employ as a gauge to weigh the seriousness - and the character - of whomever claims to be qualified to lead this country past 2012...

Hanukkah Hottie #7: My Kind Of Kat!

Kat Dennings, that is - whom you may know from The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Big Momma's The House Bunny, Thor, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, and more recently as the star of the new CBS television series, 2 Broke Girls.

Let's take a look at two comments by the Kat, the first from a story about her role in "Nick and Nora", and the other via Wikipedia:

"I had to ask people around the set about the Hebrew words," she said in a phone interview with The Jewish Journal. "I couldn't pronounce it."


....Dennings stated to The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles that Judaism "is an important part of my history, but, as a whole, religion is not a part of my life."

Kat seems to be separating her religious practice (or non-practice) from her heritage.  And whether she realizes it or not, our Kat makes an important point.  If you are born Jewish, you are Jewish, whether or not you go to synagogue on the Sabbath.  Or the High Holy days.  Or at all.

Just ask all those victims of Nazi Germany, who -  despite protestations that they weren't practicing Jews, or they were only half Jewish, or even only a quarter Jewish, or didn't even know they had Jewish blood - were burned alive in the camps anyway. 

Important to realize, especially in these times, with the return of rabid antisemitism abroad, and the flowering of it in America, as key media figures accuse Jews of being Israel-firsters, or of buying off Congress, while a feckless president smirks, snarks, and turns a blind eye.

It seems as if our Hot Kat knows better. And while she might not observe the rites and rituals, her candle of Judaism still burns bright within her.

Let's bask in her glow, shall we?

Hitler had his phantom armies, Barack Obama has his phantom Constitution

The president, apparently, is finally about to act upon all the complaints - both his, and those of his most radical constituencies - that the Constitution is in the way of the "reform" this nation truly needs.

And he's on his way to doing it. By claiming possession of an apparently never-before-seen version of the document that allows Barack Obama to do whatever he pleases, regardless of what the law dictates.

Upon signing the 2012 spending bill, he vowed to spend money upon measures that are specifically delineated within the bill to receive no funding in the fiscal year.  In other words, he promised to break the very rules that he signed into law.  Because he claims the Constitution says he can. They are pet liberal projects, of course:

The Obama administration won't be bound by a gun control ban in the $1 trillion spending bill for 2012, the president said Friday.

The funding provision for the federal health agency says that "none of the funds made available in this title may be used, in whole or in part, to advocate or promote gun control." The language aims to ban taxpayer dollars from supporting gun safety research.

"I have advised the Congress that I will not construe these provisions as preventing me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibility to recommend to the Congress's consideration such measures as I shall judge necessary and expedient," Obama said in a statement as he signed the bill into law.

The right to own a gun is enshrined in the Constitution, and next to freedom of speech, religious worship, and assembly, it is the one likely exercised most by ordinary Americans.  And now it has been signed into law that no monies will be spent to usurp this right.  But Obama's version of our sacred parchment seems to be missing the Second Amendment, and  - no surprise - says his responsibility his to fund what measures he sees fit, regardless of Congressional approval.  Separation of powers, apparently, in something else left out of Obama's new version of the Constitution...

And of course, the President will continue to employ his now-illegal "czars".  And he will force the taxpayers to foot the bill for their exorbitant salaries.  Even though he just signed a law that expressly forbade the practice.  Because the new and improved Constitution....oh, you know the drill already:

The president's signing statement also says he could end up ignoring a provision that bars taxpayer funds for paying for the "salaries and expenses" of so-called White House czars, including the director of the White House Office of Health Reform. The office was abolished earlier this year.

That provision "could prevent me from fulfilling my constitutional responsibilities, by denying me the assistance of senior advisers and by obstructing my supervision of executive branch officials in the execution of their statutory responsibilities," Obama said.

Funny, I don't recall the constitution saying anywhere that the president could have as many cronies as he wanted on the federal payroll, specifically placed to implement polices defunded by Congress.  Must be that whole separation of powers thing that Obama has been complaining about since he took office - even when he had an entirely Democratic House.

I guess he finally found a version that suits his need for unrivaled and unchecked power enshrined within a chief executive. Exactly what the Founders wanted, of course.

There's been no doubt for a while now that Barack Obama is a man with a poor grasp of economics, a coward's feel of foreign affairs, and the overall intelligence and craftiness of a small-time grifter. And now he's gone insane, claiming the existence of a phantom constitution that puts him above all law,. and is acting upon it.

How many battles did the Third Reich win with Hitler's phantom armies? Tally them up, look at the end result, and assume America, under Barack Obama's phantom Constitution, will meet with the same end...

Hanukkah Hottie #6: Elizabeth Banks Shows Her Faith...

The story of Elizabeth Banks' conversion to Judaism is an unlikely, albeit short one:


Banks married sportswriter and producer Max Handelman, who had been her boyfriend since she met him on her first day at college, September 6, 1992 She converted to Judaism upon marrying him.


Unlikely, because while to most Hollywood starlets bed-jumping is just a different type of rung-climbing/status-seeking that is simply part and parcel of the game, Elizabeth Banks stayed true to her one and only, and adopted his religion as a sign of her faith - to him, and to Judaism. All while still thrilling us in the Spider-Man flicks, the 40 Year Old Virgin, and my personal favorite, Zach and Miri Make a Porno (directed by Kevin Smith - "Jersey represents!").


So welcome to the tribe, Elizabeth.  We're so ever glad to have you...

Not enough Jewish love for you? Our Hanukkah Hotties from nights one, two, three, four, and five can be found at the appropriate links.

And did someone say Rule 5? Let's see what RS McCain has to say...

This Jew Says: "Merry Christmas To All !"

I like Christmas. A lot.

I grew up in an Italian-Catholic neighborhood, and celebrated Christmas with the families of my friends since I was a little kid. Not "celebrated" in the sense of going to church - it's not my place - but I was always invited over to a friends house to eat, drink, and occasionally exchange a gift. I think Christmas trees are beautiful, I like Christmas specials on TV, and I enjoy getting into the spirit of the season.

And I thank God every day that I live in a nation as open and tolerant as the United States of America - a Christian nation to be sure, but a nation that has been perhaps the most hospitable in the the history of civilization to the Jewish people. May it always keep its (Judeo)Christian nature, and never forget its heritage, from which springs its greatness.

And on that note, here's an email once sent by Ben Stein, standing up as a Jew and an American to do battle against those who would wage war on Christmas:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat....

Merry Christmas!


(excerpted from last year - which was cut, pasted and edited from the year before - but with, as always, a few tweaks)

Hanukkah Hottie #5 Wishes You A Merry Christmas

With a name like Michelle Trachtenberg, she just had to be Jewish, right?  Her stats are legit:


Her father is from Germany and her mother was born in Russia; Trachtenberg can speak Russian fluently. Trachtenberg is of Jewish heritage, and celebrates both Christmas and Hanukka; her grandparents live in Israel Trachtenberg was raised, along with older sister Irene, in Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn...


Not the girl from Buffy, or the manipulative bitch from Gossip Girl, but a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn, who can speak Russian with the babushkas, and has mishpacha in Israel. And appreciates the joy of Christmas.  What can be better?

Oh, wait. Did I mention she is crazy-hot?  Yeah, that's better.  The fifth candle is smokin':

Hanukkah Hottie #4: Emmy is just...yummy!

Emmy Rossum, that is.  Born and raised by a Jewish mother in New York City, you may know her from films such as Mystic River (2003), The Day After Tomorrow (2004) and The Phantom of the Opera (2004, for which she nominated for a Golden Globe). Or perhaps Poseidon (2006), or even more recently in the Showtime series Shameless, with the great William H. Macy.

And like Hottie #3, Jennifer Watson, Emmy is a singer as well. The labels, after seeing her in Phantom, wanted her to do classical, but she thought otherwise, making a rock/pop album for Geffen entitled Inside Out. It peaked at 199 on the charts, but it's OK. We love you anyway, Emmy....



And here's why: