OMG! Is Pruz's hateful screed a re-packaged Rush Limbough sermon?

The Pruz screed  is now on Cross Currents, I presume with the blessing Yaakov Menken who has never hid his ambition to be the Jewish Sean Hannity. 

Via Facebook, Chakira [click here to see his blog] tells us this comment was blocked at both Pruz.com and Cross Currents. 

Gee. Wonder why.

I am reading your blogpost, and comparing it to today's Rush Limbaugh show. It seems like there are many parallels, from the specific numbers cited, to the rhetorical question of who can compete with free stuff. Probably, you listened to the most recent show and cribbed liberally. If not, you've still been influenced by the Hashkafot of this decidedly unorthodox Rebbe. Lets compare.  

Limbaugh: "It's just very difficult to beat Santa Claus. It is practically impossible to beat Santa Claus. People are not going to vote against Santa Claus, especially if the alternative is being your own Santa Claus."
RSP: "The simplest reason why Romney lost was because it is impossible to compete against free stuff. "

Limbaugh: "You want to hear a statistic that is somewhat surprising? Romney received two and a half million fewer votes than McCain did. Now, who would have called that? Who in the world would have? I think Obama's vote tally was down ten million from 2008, and we still lost. "
RSP: "As I write, with almost all the votes counted, President Obama has won fewer votes than John McCain won in 2008, and more than ten million off his own 2008 total." 

Limbaugh:"A bunch of libs are salivating over that. They think the economy is gonna come back no matter what, and that Obama's big government is going to end up being the explanation for the rest of our lives as to how that happened. Just like in Japan, just like in Greece. But look, you bring up Greece and you bring up Europe, and they're where we're headed. Their problems are acute."
RSP "The road to Hillary Clinton in 2016 and to a European-socialist economy – those very economies that are collapsing today in Europe – is paved." 

Limbaugh "Romney presented a picture... This is very frightening stuff to me. He presented a picture of the traditional view, the traditional roots, the traditional way things work in this country."
RSP "the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness – no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate" 

Limbaugh: "The reason that Obama won is he did not go to the people who have some intelligence and are liberal and they already knew who they were voting for. He didn't go to the women that already knew who they were voting for, or the Hispanics who already knew or the blacks. He went to the homeless shelters. He went to the people who were on welfare, that he was paying their salaries. He went to the people who are, you know, on unemployment but they got their benefits extended. He went to the people who really don't understand how the economy works.""you're basically saying what I'm saying, that Obama corralled the uninformed vote"
RSP "the inescapable conclusion that the electorate is dumb – ignorant, and uninformed. Indeed, it does not pay to be an informed voter, because most other voters – the clear majority – are unintelligent "

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The madness of Pruz

Shorter Steven Pruzansky: My, God! I can't believe they let black and  Hispanics vote in this country!

The Democrat begins any race with a substantial advantage. The liberal states – like the bankrupt California and Illinois – and other states with large concentrations of minority voters as well as an extensive welfare apparatus, like New York, New Jersey and others – give any Democratic candidate an almost insurmountable edge in electoral votes. 

He might have just as easily written: The Republican begins any race with a substantial advantage. The conservative states – like welfare states that take more federal money than they pay, such as  West Virginia and Alaska  – and other states with large concentrations of evangelical voters  – give any Republican candidate a head start.

Round up of some of  comments already left on my FaceBook page

I'm starting to wonder what the Pruz is hiding. Nobody can be as xenophobic as him and not be hiding something insanely kinky.

Uhm: "Romney lost because the conservative virtues – the traditional American virtues – of liberty, hard work, free enterprise, private initiative and aspirations to moral greatness – no longer inspire or animate a majority of the electorate." Romney lost because a country is not a business it is a social construct. Romney lost because more people understood that words like "liberty" are codes for greed, and none have one tiny thing to do with morals and lack any real virtue. And greed alone can only sustain a few and not all. America is finally getting smart--finally.

I hate the whole message, the whole idea, that America is only and forever what we say it is, and not what other legitimate Americans say it is. No doubt he makes the same error of reasoning when he considers frumkeit.

What is scariest to me, is that someone with so much hate in his heart for anyone who holds an opinion different from his own (and an assumption that that individual must be unintelligent because of that different viewpoint) could be a Rabbi and a leader and in the same breathe as these spiteful words, praise his service of God. That is so much scarier than anything going on in this country’s politics right now and it should scare Republican and Democratic Jews alike. What a waste of a position of power.

He certainly one-uped Romney, this piece is an insult to more than 47% of the country.

I can't tell what annoys me more, his condescension or his racism.
To me, it is the racism. I cannot believe that he could write like this given that our community historically has suffered such discrimination. To the anti-semite, they do not care if you are conservative or liberal, Republican or Democratic. We suffered from the same attitude he is displaying in his blog.
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Meme of the Day

Today's meme is Angry Billionaires. Seems the 1 percenters who bet their beer money on the Romney campaign are feeling screwed. Can I get a whah whah?

I'm not so sure I agree the money was wasted. Romney, let's remember, was an awful candidate.  When I think back on is campaign, I remember his mismanaged convention, the ridiculous lies he told, the Etch-A-Sketch record, and the endless gaffes, not to mention the strange personality. How did I guy like that get close to 50 percent?  

The negative, mudslinging advertising the oligarchs bought  had something to do with it.  It may not have turned the Presidential race, but it definitely helped the GOP hold on to Congress.
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The crazy is strong with them

Yeranen Yaakov writes to the president:

Dear President Obama,

Congratulations on your winning a second term in office. Now that your campaign's dirty politics, mudslinging, and blatant lies against your opponent have come to an end, I want to point out a few wrong decisions that you have made in your first term - and earlier - that make myself and people like me shudder in fear.

DB: Did you fail to notice Romney's dirty politics, mudslinging, and blatant lies? More to the point have you failed to notice how politics work? Every candidate slings mud. You can't win without going negative. But when it comes to lying, Mitt won that race.

First and foremost, you have rivaled your predecessor Jimmy Carter in being the most anti-Israel president in history. 

DB: Where did we get the idea that Carter was an anti-Israel president? He negotiated the Camp David Accords, for heavens sake, also known as the "best thing that ever happened to Israel."  

You implemented a useless freeze on settlements, 

DB: No. Netanyahu "implemented" the freeze. All Obama did was ask for it.  Netanyahu is the one who said, Yes sir, and went ahead with it. And, because everyone forgets this, let me remind you that George Bush also asked for a freeze. Israel said no to him. So why, as an American, should we be mad at the president who was strong enough to get what he thought was in the best interests of America? Why are we blaming Obama's for Netanyahu's weakness? As the prime minister of Israel it was in Netanyahu's power to reject the request. He didn't, and that's on him. Not Obama

 your Vice-President and State Department have berated Israel for building in Jerusalem, Israel's capital, 

DB: That's longstanding US policy. Condi Rice also berated Israel for building in Jerusalem. It didn't start with Obama.

and your spokesmen have refused to actually name Jerusalem Israel's capital. 

DB: That's longstanding US policy. The Bush people also were reluctant to  name Jerusalem Israel's capital. 

You deemed Jerusalem "undivided" only to backtrack on that the next day. Your policy on Iran leaves me feeling less secure than four years ago, and your support of the Arab Spring leaves us wondering if a Muslim Caliphate is on its way.

DB: Stop wondering. Its not "on its way"

 Your first foreign speech in Cairo left all freedom-loving people trembling in fear. 

DB: No it didn't

Meanwhile, an ill Jonathan Pollard is languishing in prison, and you couldn't care less. 

DB How much did either Bush or Ronald Reagan care about this issue?

And to top it off, your arrogant, condescending treatment of Prime Minister Netanyahu is a perfect example of how anti-Israel you are. 

DB: Yeah inviting him to the White House and feting him on multiple occasions, sure was arrogant. Look dummy, you have it exactly backwards. Netanyahu needs Obama. Not the other way around. And when you need someone as much as Israel needs us, you don't act as rudely and as disruptively as Netanyahu has acted toward the president. Just who is the super power here? 

 Yes, you have to deal with him every day, as you whined to former PM Sarkozy. You have rivaled Jimmy Carter indeed.

DB: Not to belabor the point, but just WHAT did Jimmy Carter do during his presidency that was bad for Israel? Did he sell sophisticated planes to Israel's mortal enemy? (Reagen) Did he drag Israel to the peace table by threatening her with the cancelation of loan guarantees? (Bush 1) Did he create the Road Map or become the first US president to openly speak of a two state solution? (Bush 2) Just what did he do?

Your social agenda makes me wonder whether I'm in the same country in which I grew up. Your support for same-gender marriage is abhorrent, especially for a president. 

DB: No, its categorically the same as Kennedy's support for civil rights, and marvelous.

Your anti-life policies are just as bad, 

DB: Pro-choice. Not "anti-life" See if you can work out the difference.

and I can't for the life of me understand how you can force religious constituents to defy their beliefs to follow your liberal agenda.

DB: That's because it isn't what he does.

With regard to your fiscal policies, your "fair share" speeches leave me feeling that your sense of fairness is heavily skewed. It may work nicely in the Sherwood Forest, but in reality, the only word I can use for it is "redistribution". 

DB: Aren't you clever. Is it also called "redistribution" when we tax the middle class to pay for things that disproportionately benefit rich people? What about corporate welfare? Also "redistribution?"

Unemployment lingers around 8% and isn't getting much better.

DB:  Check the paper. We've has several months of improvements. It IS getting much better.

ObamaCare has a few good points, but the fact that it basically levies a giant tax - as the Supreme Court deemed it - on the tax-paying part of the nation - and in the middle of a national economic struggle - is simply baffling.

Your past isn't reassuring to me either. Your learning in a midrassa in Indonesia makes me wonder who and what shaped the views of your youth. Your ties to Bill Ayers, Frank Marshall Davis, Reverend Wright, and Rashid Khalidi should have marginalized you long ago, and yet you endure.

DB: This nonsense again? Learn how to operate Snopes.

In short, I'm pretty much against everything you are for. That said, I have come to terms that you will be the President of the United States for the next four years, and will have to live with it. Nevertheless, you should not be surprised if people like me move out of the country during the next four years. We love our country, but not the direction we see it moving.

DB: Yeah, protest Obama's election by moving to a place like Israel, where the taxes are higher, socialized medicine is already in place, and Muslims serve in the parliament. Idiot. 

I will pray to G-d that He will give you the wisdom to do the right things for the sake of this nation and the world.

DB: Haven't we been taught "Lev Melech b'yad Hashem?" That a king's decisions are guided by God? So isn't it a wee bit inconsistent for someone like you, who allows the Sages to tell him which shoe to put on first, to worry about Obama?



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Donaghy 16

Best thing about Romney losing? Next time maybe the GOP candidate won't lick quite so many evangelical, T-party, birther, racist rear ends. You guys want to win? Put up Jack Donaghy and give us a Sister Soulja moment that disowns your crazy base.
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My vote

I went to the polls last night planning to vote for Barak Obama.   Like many of you, I credit Obama for improving our economy and our reputation abroad, while making it perfectly clear that he remains cold-blooded enough to use force when necessary. I think he's done right by Israel, and brought the country forward by reforming health care. I am in favor of gay marriage and I don't want a president who picks up the phone when an evangelical or T-Party whacko calls.  So, the choice was clear, I thought.

Yet when the moment came to fill in my ballot I vacillated. Here's why:  I don't have any special understanding of the economy. Though, I read piles of non-fiction there's never anything on my nightstand about money or banking. I understand finance, I think, about as well as the average GOP Jew understands foreign affairs or civil rights or the history of Judaism, which is to say, my grasp of it barely rises above the comic book level.  

And that's what made me, at the very last second, think twice about voting for Obama. See, my GOP Jewish friends know quite a bit about money. They take money very seriously. Several have more than a lot of it. While I subscribe to TNR, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker, they read things like Business Week, the Economist, Cranes and Forbes. As a result, I know enough to spot the flaws in their arguments against Obama's foreign policy and his overall political philosophy, but I'm on much weaker ground when the conversation turns to the economy*. Unanimously, these wealthy GOP Jewish friends of mine opposed Obama, and because they are not bible-thumpers, fundamentalists, or T-Party morons, their objections came down to one thing: His plans to revitalize the economy and increase our incomes. And because I'd like to be wealthy, but recognize my shortcomings in this area, I hesitated. 

* An example: I can usually win an argument about the morality or pragmatism of universal health care, but not disagreements about the underlying economics. I have no doubt that reforming health care is the right thing to do, and I think I can prove it. But I have no idea if we can afford it, or if implementing it will harm or help the economy

To buy time, I went to the bottom of the ballot first and made my picks in the local races. As always, unless I knew the candidate personally. I picked Green or Socialist, or Working Families candidates -- not because I want a fringe, likely insane, candidate to win, but because I want the eventual winner to see a vote for progressive politics. And then it was time to vote for a president. For whom shall I cast my meaningless vote, I asked myself. Do I want wealth or freedom? Money or respect for science, facts and reality? Lower taxes or longer life expectancy? 

Once I phrased it like that, the answer became obvious. I pulled the lever for Obama, and went home with a smile.

PS: Want me to vote Republican? Nominate Jack Donaghy. 

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The terrible things Obama will do

Over the course of this campaign I've heard from countless sincere but less then bright Republicans who are certain Obama has terrible designs on Israel, America and the Jewish people, designs that will be set into motion just as soon as he wins his second term.

With that moment (possibly) just a few hours a way, I'd like the pessimists to go on the record with their most dire predictions. Tell us precisely what you think Obama has in store for us, and should he win, and should I still be blogging, we'll check back in four years and see how things turned out.

Romney haters, you can play, too. Tell us what you think he'll do to the economy, the social safety net, and the 47 percenters. We'll time capsule those responses too and check back in 4 to see what happened.

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DovBear speaks, Israel listens*

I called on Israel to help the communities afflicted by Sandy , and soon afterwards, I see this headline:

Israel Flying Aid Gives Food, Generators, Gas To Hurricane Sandy New York, New Jersey Victims >More

I think that's awesome. Well done, Israel.

* A joke. Please don't embaress yourself by complaining about it. Thanks

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Casual Chabad Lubovitch racism

Your major newspapers, magazines and TV shows know better than to use a black face to depict generic crime. But Chabad Lubovitch hasn't gotten the memo. * This illustration, with a leering black youth in the background, appears on Chabad.org's facebook page and is captioned:

"When reciting words of Torah while in the store, walking in the street, or riding the subway, one purifies the air."
--Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak of Lubavitch

As the person who sent this to me said  Considering Chabad's historic racial issues with African Americans in Crown Heights and Ethiopian Jews in Israel, the drawing and quote are stunningly tone deaf.

To say the least.

*UPDATE: They aren't depicting a crime. They're depicting a contaminated subway, and a tehillim-reciting girl who is "purifying the air". Thought that was clear

HT on request

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Ok, show us how funny you are:

A guest post by Woodrow, chief humor correspondent

There's an old joke about how in Heaven the British are the diplomats, the Germans the soldiers and the Italians the cooks, while in Hell the British are the cooks, the Germans the diplomats, and the Italians the soldiers.

So here's your build-a-joke opportunity: If in Heaven Romney is X and Obama is Y, and in Hell Obama is X and Romney is Y, what are X and Y?

Woodrow
http://woodrowconservadox.wordpress.com

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Chaos and Destruction in Seagate

Mordechai Ben David leads a video tour of his Sandy devastated neighborhood

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WWCS (What would Chazal say) about Sandy?

Despite the Swiftian efforts of @berlshain, some stupid #Sandy memes continue to gain ground.  One especially toxic myth is the view that the storm was God's way of passing judgement on pro-gay marriage New York.

Best as I can tell, this meme began with a Right Wing preacher, who linked the storm and homosexuality to Halloween the gay high Holy Day. Not to be outdone, the ugly warts at Torah Jews for Decency picked up the Christian's way of thinking and connected the storm and their pet bugaboo to the Great Flood of Noah. In the view of Rabbi Noson Leiter, the flood both occurred and was "triggered by the recognition of same-gender marriages." This outburst won a public rebuke from George Pataki.

The rabbi is not just a hate-mongering fraud. He's also ignorant of his own tradition. Here's Rashi, king of the commentators, quoting the Babylonian Talmud:

for the earth has become full of robbery: Their verdict was sealed only because of robbery. — [from Sanh. 108a]  -- Rashi to Genesis 6:13

The flood, we can see, was not "triggered by the recognition of same-gender marriages." Rather, their "verdict was sealed only because of robbery." So the rabbi is guilty not only of spreading hatred, but of spreading misinformation about what the tradition actually says.

Another common maneuver is to tie the storm to Parshas Va'ayreh, and the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was read in synagogues last Saturday. Like Rabbi Leiter's drasha, this one works only if you ignore centuries of rabbinic tradition which link the sin of Sodom with selfishness, not homosexuality. As Ramban reads it even the story's most famous verse -- the one notoriously used by Rashi to suggests the people of Sodom were sodomists -- is used to fortify the prophetic and rabbinic view that the sin of Sodom was, in fact, radical indifference to suffering, poverty, and vulnerability. (Such a liberal, right?)

Nachmanides commenting on the verse "AND WE SHALL KNOW THEM". 
Their intention was to stop people from coming among them, as our rabbis have said, for they thought that because of the excellence of their land... many will come there and they despised charity... they continued provoking and rebelling against Him with their ease and the oppression of the poor... In the opinion of our Rabbis, all evil practices were rampant among them. Yet their fate was sealed because of this sin - i.e. they did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy - since this sin represented their usual behaviour more than any other. Besides, since all peoples act righteously towards their friends and their poor, there was none among all the nations who matched Sodom in cruelty. 

Though Ramban concedes the townspeople wished to rape Lot's visitors, theirs was not a crime of lust. Their motive, he says, was to discourage visitors (illegal immigrants!) because they were unwilling to share the city's bounty with outsiders. This sin, the sin of selfishness, was how Chazal explained subsequent Jewish tragedies, including the loss of the Temple. Given their endless inveighing against this form of cruelty and their habit of connecting it to communal losses and tragedies, does it not seem likely that this is also how they would explain Sandy, were they alive today?  More here

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Why did Sandy Happen? The Definitive Answer, by @BerelShain

A guest post by our crack #Sandy correspondent @BerelShain

“A man is angry at a libel because it is false, but at a satire because it is true.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Hurricane Sandy was an unprecedented event in the NY/NJ area. While we have seen hurricanes in the past, the death and destruction caused by this perfect storm of wind, rain and the highest of tides crippled our area and ruined life, liberty and property to an extent we have never before seen. As human beings, our need for reason is deeply engrained and theories were not long in coming. I too felt a need to understand the deeper message behind this epic storm and am convinced that I have reached the truth after a journey through folly. Below is my voyage.

Peek a Jew (gas shortage)

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/nyregion/gasoline-shortages-disrupting-recovery-from-hurricane.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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Where's Israel in our hour of need?

Did Israel drop the ball? For once American Jews need THEIR help. Did the Jewish state come through for Jews devastated by Sandy?

Does anyone love Israel more than the uber-Zionist Jews who live on the South Shore of Long Island? Hard to imagine. They visit often, donate promiscuously to Israeli causes, buy bonds, send their kids to Israeli schools, and remember the Jewish state in their prayers. Whenever a crisis of any kind hits Israel, their shuls are littered with flyers and besieged by visitors begging for emergency funds. You can be sure that if a place like Bet Shemesh or Hashmonaim was under water, the shuls in towns like Merrick and Oceanside and West Hempstead and Woodmere would step up, and step up generously.

* The four places I list above are the largest MO bases on the South Shore. Of course there are heterodox communities there, too, and they are even more numerous and even more generous toward Israeli causes. 

So it's fair to ask: Where's Israel in our hour of need? Are Israeli shuls and communities organizing support drives? Are funds being collected? And please don't misunderstand. I am not complaining about individuals acting alone. I'm certain anyone who can help has already written a check. The question isn't about individuals. Its about communities. Are organized efforts underway? Or does the communal aid and concern flow only one way?

ASIDES

Seen on Twitter: "when u make aliyah ur job is over." I think that just about sums it up. Move to Israel, and you become part of a new Jewish priestly caste. "Your job is over", but we're supposed to support you with something akin to Trumot and Maasrot in exchange for the holy work you're allegedly doing merely by living overseas.

I'm HAPPY to be wrong. In fact I hope this post is totally wrong. Please scan and send me all flyers and posters distributed in your Israeli shul that ask ppl to help US Jews who are now homeless and carless thanks to Sandy. B'n I'll post all of them here.

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Torah's drying out

In ye olde days before Twitter and Fecebook, people had to come to blogs (like this one!)(sigh!)  to find a picture like this:

Torah Scrolls being dried out in NYC

Anyone know the shul?

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Anything new? (Hurricane theodicy)

So, of course, self-appointed Jewish leaders have already figured out why the hurricane happened. Unfortunately, they can't come to any sort for agreement between themselves. One says it was generated  by NY's support for gay marriage (does NJ also support gay marriage?)  Another says it came because Obama has "enslaved" Israel (by sending them billions of dollars and unprecedented military support, I suppose.)

The only sensible rabbinic word comes from R. Yaakov Horowitz who tweeted in favor of legislation outlawing such insane pronouncements.

Unfortunately, the big money, plainly, is in being insane.So let me add my own voice to the madness. Here we go, employing the three basic steps of absurd theodicy:

Step 1: Find a verse, or rabbinic source, that can be stripped of context and employed for supporting my pet agenda

Rashi says that God only brought the flood in Noah's time because of robbery. 

for the earth has become full of robbery: Their verdict was sealed only because of robbery. — [from Sanh. 108a]  -- Rashi to Genesis 6:13

Step 2: Massage the facts to fit my purpose

The hurricane targeted Wall Street. 

Step 3: Make the smug pronouncement

Obviously, God sent the hurricane to punish the bankers for destroying the economy

See how easy this dumb game is?

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