Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Well, I'm moving
Tomorrow I'm flying off to that strange land called the USA... judging by the facts that I'll be living on my own and in New York, and that I'll be starting grad school in a month, I expect my mood to become a lot more cheerful soon.
On a related note, I'm probably going to move out of UTI in a few days. Nothing against this place - I admire it and I'm glad to be a frontpager here - but I don't want to overrun a blog about atheism with posts about the I/P conflict, American foreign policy, gender inequality, or health care, to say nothing of memes and personal vanity.
Update: apparently, the above paragraph doesn't make it clear that I'm not quitting blogging. I'm almost certainly going to start my own yet-nameless blog.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
Columbia
As a graduate of Columbia University's graduate program in Psychology with some experience, I think you'll fit in just fine with all the other self hating Jews who want to help pay for their ticket on the train ride to the new death camps. What's your proposed degree in? Collaborationism? Vichy Vous? Quisling Quotations?
I won't be joining you. I will resist.
Re Elaygee
I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to defend Mr. Levy.
Speaking as someone who has been very critical of Mr. Levy and his Israel bashing, I think that the assertion that he is a self-hating Jew is unfair. First of all, Mr. Levy will be a graduate student (at age 18, evidence of considerable intelligence) in the Mathematics department of a prestigious university. Second of all, although I think his criticisms of the government of the State of Israel are grossly unfair, they appear to be aimed, as far as I can tell at the government. Unlike the self-hating Jews who seem to favor abolishment of the State of Israel, he appears to favor a 2 state solution and while I am of the view that the Palestinian state is in Amman, I don't think this is evidence of self-hating. Third of all, I don't think criticism of the actions of the Israeli Government are out of line. I have been very critical of that Government on this blog and elsewhere, albeit from the point of view that it has been too timid, rather then disproportionate. I would agree that there is a fine line between bashing and self hating but it does not appear to me that Mr. Levy has crossed that line, although that is a matter of opinion.
My impression of Mr. Levy is that he is very well read, and well informed,and quite cocky and arrogant in his knowledge. This is not uncommon in very bright people. I have known several such people (e.g. the physicists Julian Schwinger, Steven Weinberg, Yuval Ne'eman, and Murrey GellMann; these folks had much to be cocky and arrogant about due to their accomplishments - we will see if Mr. Levy will eventually have the accomplishments which warrent arrogance and cockyness). Mr. Levy appears to me to be an individual who is convinced that he knows it all. Nothing unusual there, everybody thinks they know it all at 18. The question is will he still think he knows it all when he hits 30.
My suspicion is that he will not take kindly to this defense. However, that goes with the territory. I'm a big boy and I can take it.
You're right
I indeed hate myself. I already pledge money to the KKK and the Christian Coalition, and am actively looking for an Al-Qaida operative to work for. I do online maintenance work for Stormfront and Free Republic, where I've earned a reputation as someone who makes the rest of the posters look like kyke lovers. On top of that, I continually agitate for the elimination of grad school stipends, for subjecting New York to military rule, for requiring all people under 25 to submit to a strict curfew, and for sterilizing people who wear glasses. After all, I hate myself.
New York
On a personal note, although I will acknowledgy that it is none of my business, I am curious as to your choice of New York City as a place to attend greduate school. One would think that Cambridge, Ma. or Berkeley, Ca. would be more conducive to your Israel bashing proclivities. The institutions of Harvard and UC Berkeley contain some of the most renown Israel bashers in the US (I am ashamed to admit that I am a greduate of UC Berkeley).
I'm not attending grad school because of politics
If I were interested in going into graduate schools based on what politics they espoused, I'd have majored in political science or history. Columbia happens to have a top notch program in my subfield of math, algebra/number theory; I'd be an idiot to go to Berkeley solely because I liked its politics (I did consider going to Berkeley because of its algebraists, but eventually decided Columbia had a better program).
Berkeley math department
You were probably wise not to attand UC Berkeley. My experience with the faculty there (albeit a few years ago) was that they were a bunch of a**holes.
Columbia Un.
Well, Columbia has some pretty good two fisted Israel bashers too.
are you kidding...
If we all went to universities based on who was going to 'bash us' because of our backgrounds I wouldn't have gone to the university i went to last year, and really wouldn't be going to the university im going to in september.
not to mention alon isn't stupid enough to worry about what other people are going to say about a country he was born in so much as to miss out on a superb opportunity.
are you kidding
I think you are somewhat confused here.
Since Mr. Levy is a first class grade A1 Israel basher, I'm sure he will find others of this ilk to hang out with.
So?
There are pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli people in every university of sufficient size. In fact because outside professional schools, Western universities tilt left, I'm fairly certain there are more people at Columbia who think I'm a pro-Israeli shill because I fail to support Hadash or categorically oppose assassination or whatever pet reason they prefer, than people who think I'm excessively pro-Palestinian.
ah, now i see the kidding
I understand, confusion erased, and foot inserted in mouth.
Best of luck and I'll be looking for your new blog
I've enjoyed reading your posts especially because of your life experiences. I hope you will tell some personal stories in your new blog to help us get a flavor of what it was like in the places you have lived.
Moving
Heres another parting shot.
The need for steadfastness
By Col. Ralph Peters August 2, 2006
As I have been writing in The New York Post during this crisis, Israel cannot afford to show weakness -- but the Olmert government has been tragically weak. In warfare, those unwilling to pay the butcher's bill up front pay it with compound interest in the end.
I have despaired of the Olmert government's fecklessness and incompetence (in military matters), and it has been shocking to watch Hezbollah mislead Israeli intelligence (culminating in the artful set-up in Qana, which lured the Israel Defense Forces into creating a photogenic "atrocity" stage-managed by Hezbollah).
At present, since Olmert belatedly approved the broader use of ground troops, there is some reason for hope; however, this is the last quarter of the game, and ISRAEL must display ruthlessness and uncompromising seriousness on the battlefield.
Thus far, Hezbollah has been winning both the information/propaganda war and the "shooting war". Having delayed the commitment of ground troops, the cost of their commitment will be higher now, since Hezbollah is convinced that it is winning and has its adrenaline flowing. Still, a determined IDF -- that is not called off prematurely -- can cripple this atrocious terrorist organization.
The Bush administration is furious at Israel. Bush has been doing his best to buy time for Israel to finish the job -- while the international community of Israel-haters cry for a cease-fire that would hand Hezbollah victory. Bush insiders are frustrated because of Olmert's weak prosecution of the war. They wanted Israel to go in and finish the job -- time is of the essence in war in the media age.
Bush has been steadfast in his support of ISRAEL during this crisis. The problem is that ISRAEL has not been steadfast to itself.
Nor does the United States trust U.N. peacekeepers. We know they favor Hezbollah. And, personally, I suspect that the strike on the U.N. outpost was conducted by the I.D.F. on purpose -- for good reason, because the U.N. observers were passing intelligence to Hezbollah.
Perhaps I'm wrong about that -- it is only my analysis -- but certainly the U.N. has coddled and helped Hezbollah.
I do not have confidence in the current Israeli chief of defense staff, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz -- an air force officer who fell in love with technology. He forgot that, in this new day of Cain-and-Abel violence, warfare remains a matter of flesh and blood.
Moving
Since you're leaving, heres a parting shot.
A war we must win, at any price
UZI LANDAU, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 1, 2006
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dreams of a new Middle East in which leading pro-US Arab states such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are weakened and Iran becomes the new regional superpower.
The destruction of Israel is part of the dream, which is shared by Syria.
Iran is working hard to realize Ahmadinejad's dream, destabilizing the "Shi'ite Crescent" stretching from Iran to Iraq to Syria; and from Syria to Lebanon, where the Shi'ites are the largest minority.
Another Shi'ite branch runs from Iran to the Gulf Emirates and eastern Saudi Arabia - and it is rich in oil as well as in Shi'ites.
Terror, the kidnapping of IDF soldiers and the Israeli response are all part of the Iranian-Syrian dream.
Arab leaders, standing by as Israel strikes back, are portrayed as collaborators of Israel and the US; and Israel is depicted as sinking into a quagmire of deepening attrition, faltering invincibility, ebbing deterrence and a teetering economy - and a burden to the US, an ally that cannot be relied on when the going gets tough.
THE ACTUAL work is being done for Syria and Iran by terrorist organizations, Hizbullah in particular acting as a fully-fledged forward unit of the Iranian army. And not only are Syria and Iran not paying a price, they are learning that the system works and terror pays.
If the current conflict ends without a severe blow to Hizbullah and without Syria and Iran paying heavily, Ahmadinejad's dream will move ahead in leaps and bounds. Iran and Syria will grow unrecognizably stronger, with Iran on its way to attaining regional hegemony as it moves ahead with its plans to acquire nuclear power.
The influence of the Western-leaning Arab countries is weakening as Islamist and terrorist organizations burgeon and destabilize them internally. We are seeing countries like Sudan and Yemen jumping on the extremist bandwagon.
Russia, which wants to restore its previous position internationally, has decided to challenge the US in the Middle East and is aiding Iran and Syria. It will do so even more in the future. Ditto China.
WE ISRAELIS also have a dream: to live in peace and quiet on our land. We want to bring our kidnapped soldiers home and remove the threat of missiles hanging over our towns and cities.
And we have no other option but to go ahead and do it: We cannot avoid the problem, as Israeli governments have done so far.
We have no choice but to win this war, decisively and at any price. It is an absolute necessity, and the only way to do it is by preventing the enemy from making any gains, and exacting a disproportionate price from all those involved in the terror.
The war can end only after Hizbullah has been disarmed of most of its missiles, cut off from the flow of supplies from Syria, distanced many kilometers from our border and weakened to the extent that its bitter enemies in Lebanon - Christians, Druse, Sunnis and Shi'ite rivals - can deal with it.
This necessitates the entry of massive ground forces, for a fixed period, into the area north of the international border up to the Litani River, and to the areas from where the missiles are being launched at Israel's northern cities.
SYRIA, conducting the war against Israel via Hizbullah and sending it regular supplies of advanced weaponry, must also pay a direct price. This should initially be restricted to attacks on just a few military facilities, but the message must be unambiguous: Any further Hizbullah attacks on our citizens will result in more extensive and harsher attacks on Syria.
Declarations by Israeli ministers that Israel will not attack Syria only encourage it to continue supporting the terrorists.
Tel Aviv's insurance policy lies in Damascus, not Beirut, and failing to exact a price from Syria at this time will bring another war on us in the future, under far worse conditions - just as failing to confront the activity north of our border over the past six years, when Syria was building up its terrorist infrastructure in Lebanon, led to the current war.
Syria feels threatened by American forces in Iraq to the east, and will beware of a war with a determined Israel to its west. An approach that severely undermines Iran's allies Syria and Hizbullah will weaken the axis of terror and exact a high price without direct confrontation.
IRAN, SYRIA and their terror tentacles became convinced by Israel's leadership over the past 13 years that terror pays. They interpreted the Oslo Agreements as surrender; the withdrawal from Lebanon as a panicky capitulation; the total, unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, without receiving anything at all in return, along with the planned "realignment," as flights from terror.
The helplessness the IDF demonstrated following the abduction of three of our soldiers in October 2000, the Hizbullah terror attacks since, the rain of Kassam rockets on Sderot in the south - amid declarations from Israeli leaders that the "powerful IDF will respond with full strength," "Gaza will tremble" and "restraint is strength" - only served to bolster that same conclusion: Terror pays.
THOSE WHO do not demonstrate courage and wisdom today will tomorrow face a dark, terrifying and nonconventional regional "new order," putting the very existence of Israel - and with it, the entire West - in unprecedented peril.
This war, forced upon us, is a one-time opportunity to disrupt the plans of Iran and Syria while most of the democratic world still supports us. It is a war of no choice.
Our victory is a necessary condition for any future peace process, and for us to be able to realize our dream of peace and quiet in the face of the evil dream of an extreme, nuclearized Middle East filled with terror.
The writer is former minister for public security and former chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
Good luck
Good luck in the USA Alon. If you're not going to post here, you should start your own blog. You've got the talent for it.
I hope you still visit though!
If you're ever in the MD area, let me know!
I will...
First, see the update: I'm going to start my own blog - sorry for not having made it clear.
Second, I'll certainly let you know if I'm in or near Maryland.