Why Can’t They Make Up Their Minds

You may wonder why my blogs have of late been so few and far between.  Then again, to my dismay, maybe you haven’t even noticed.

Truth is that I have been unable to zero in on a Republican candidate.  One who I can take consistent shots at.  The candidate of choice has been a moving target.  Oh for another Sarah Palin.

Rick Santorum, the flavor of the week, just begs for the spotlight.  But I know that even before I finish typing this blog he will have gone the way of the Dodo.  And then what will be left for us…er, right.  Mitt Romney who we already know more about than most of our relatives will undoubtedly move back into the lead.  A point in his favor was his recent declaration of electability when he anointed himself a “severe conservative.”  But after that, what else is there to say about him?  And, once I’ve said it, he’ll probably offend some poor, black, disabled grandmother and be out of range again.

Rick is no slam-dunk-shoo-in for my barbs even though he claims that the Crusades are why the American left hates Christendom…

The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical, …And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom.

And who doesn’t already know Rick’s thoughts about climate change or, more specifically, what should be done to deal with it…

Well, if you have a problem and you want to craft something, what should that thing that you’re crafting do? Solve the problem. Do any of the proposed solutions put forward by Al Gore and his friends do anything to solve the problem? Even the scientists who support the theory will admit to you that it doesn’t do anything to solve the problem. So query, why support the solution, other than you may have some other agenda that may be in place here.

His comments ten days ago to a Fulton, Missouri gay man don’t rise to a level that commands our attention above that deserved by either American Idol or America’s Funniest Home Videos…

You’re not entitled “to special treatment under the law…[Marriage is] not a right, it’s something that has existed since the beginning of human history as an institution where men and women come together for the purposes of forming a natural relationship as God made it to be. And for the purposes of having children and continuing that civilization. It is an intrinsic good…And as a result of that, we extend a privilege. We extend certain privileges to people who do that because we want to encourage that behavior.  Two people who may like each other or may love each other who are same-sex, is that a special relationship? Yes it is, but it is not the same relationship that benefits society like a marriage between a man and a woman.

Even his thoughts about God can’t make Santorum a boogeyman for our sniping…

I get a kick out of folks who call for equality now, the people on the left, ‘Well, equality, we want equality.’ Where do you think this concept of equality comes from? It doesn’t come from Islam. It doesn’t come from the East and Eastern religions, where does it come from? It comes from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that’s where it comes from.  Santorum went on to suggest that people who don’t live according to what he termed “God’s law” can’t claim “equality.”

A couple of guys who do deserve our undivided attention are Heinrich Himmler  and Reinhard Heydrich.  You may remember these guys from World War 2.  Himmler, second in command to Adolph, was the head of the Gestapo and Heydrich was largely responsible for planning the disposition of six million Jews, and three or four million Poles, Communists and other assorted undesirables.  The interesting thing about both of them is that, while exhibiting extraordinary patriotism and an abiding hatred of everyone not like them,  they were relatively incompetent. Yet they managed to control a highly educated German population, bring about the Holocaust and very nearly win the war.

That could never happen here.

Lies, lies and more lies

It’s a wonder that anyone tells the truth in politics.  Negative ads, financed by folks who have no interest in the facts, are the soup du jour of our TV screens.  Based on my careful calculations, superpacs alone have contributed about a bazillion dollars per lie to the current Republican primary battle.  Can you even fathom the money that is yet to be spent creating the image that the sky will fall if the black guy gets another four years.  But that should surprise no one.  Lies have been a mainstay in creating fear in the minds of those most vulnerable.  And in finding convenient scapegoats to blame for the liars’ own failures.

I am reasonably conversant with anti-Semitism having been exposed to it on several memorable occasions.  But it never hurts to take a refresher course.  I’m currently reading Phyllis Goldstein’s treatise on the subject  A Convenient Hatred.  Ms. Goldstein chronicles the use of misinformation and lies in subjugating and blaming Jews for many of the world’s catastrophes including  plagues, wars, economic collapse and Lindsay Lohan.  Coursing through her book, you are repeatedly exposed to the willingness of the majority to accept, cheer and rebroadcast blatant falsehoods.

Maybe that’s why most Jews place great importance on the truth.  Why we are taught early on that lying is immoral and unjust.  Why lies stick in our mouths.  And maybe that’s why I was taken aback earlier this week.

My old school chum Gary, a Jew, has tobogganed to the political right…way right.  He does e-blasts that generally chronicle the reasons why the left is to be blamed for all our ills.  I scan his mail with a grain of salt and will occasionally trade notes with Gary that take issue with his observations.  On Wednesday I opened the latest Gary-blast and found the following which he had probably cribbed from some other blast…

 It is time to clean the congressional house and the presidency for the sake  of our children and grandchildren.  We need some honest people in politics who are able to read any bill that jeopardizes the public like this one that you are about to read!!!!

Did you know that if you sell your house after 2012 you will pay a 3.8% sales tax on it?  That’s $3,800 on a $100,000 home,  etc.  When did this happen?  It’s in the health care bill and goes into effect in 2013.

Not one to take this at face value, I read about the tax and found that Gary had been a bit over-zealous.

Dear Gary, I wrote…You really need to read the facts about this.  The tax is on the profits over $500,000 made on the sale of a home and you need an income that exceeds $250,000. Here’s a link.  Oh, and I assume you will publish a retraction.

Dear Fred, he wrote… Doesn’t your property exceed $500,00?  And I just love the fact that no one read the entire bill until it was passed (Thanks Ms. Pelosi).

Dear Gary, I wrote… Don’t be like Ms. Pelosi.  Read the facts.  The tax is on the profit from the sale, not the sale price.  And, for a couple, the first $500,000 of profit is excludable.  So, if I made a million in profit I’d pay about $20,000 in tax.  I should live so long.  And, of equal importance, the tax only falls on those with an income of more than $250,000.  Now will you publish a retraction?

I guess Gary is busy since no retraction has found its way to my mailbox.

Now maybe this doesn’t rise to Holocaust proportions but what really bothers me is that a Jew can ignore his own history and proceed down a path that should be abhorrent to him.  Yes, I can hear some of you say “What’s he so bent out of shape about?  This is 2012. All that stuff is behind us.  Lying is part of the political process.  Everyone does it.”  Really?

Last week we heard the upbeat news about jobs.  Hooray we said.  Progress.  Some of us were pleased.  Some claimed the books were cooked.  Paul Krugman, a Jew writing for that Commie paper the Times, had this to say about how to attack the facts…The answer is to throw a bunch of bogus numbers at the issues, in the hope that something sticks, or at least that the discussion becomes confused.

…and that’s in a best case.