Archive for January 4th, 2009
The Moral Clarity of Gaza
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Culture, Philosophy, Politics on January 4, 2009
If you were paying attention to NPR and CNN — hardly ever the best possible use of one’s time — you probably noticed that virtually every story concerning Gaza began with a lead that went something like this:
“Israel continued firing rockets into Gaza today, killing X number of Palestinians. The Israeli action was a response to Palestinian rocket fire against towns and settlements in southern Israel.”
Why did almost every report begin with Israeli “aggression,” even though it was Palestinian terror that provoked the response? It’s simple. These unabashedly pro-Palestinian news organizations are fully aware of a basic psychological phenomemon, that long-term memory retains whatever information is heard first far more prominently than whatever information is heard later. By placing Israeli “aggression” foremost in their stories, they ensure that, over time, listeners will develop the distinct impressions that it is the Israelis who are responsible for the conflict.
This, together with the inevitable moral equivalence of counting casualties without clarifying that the Hamas terrorists who use Palestinian civilians as human shields are ultimately most responsible for Palestinian deaths, and the mantra “cycle of violence” chanted like Orwellian sheep — all of it snowballs into the same inevitable mind-set that brings international pressure to bear against Israel to stand down and allow the terrorists who have no objective other than its destruction to regroup and to grow further emboldened.
Fortunately, the United States remains Israeli’s ally and defender. One hopes that this will not change after January 20.
When moral clarity becomes moral confusion, however, the Jew takes heart. There is truly no rational, logical, or natural explanation for how so many intelligent people, so many world leaders, so many journalists, so many university professors and students can suffer such extraordinary moral myopia. When we live in times of such inexplicable illogic, we cannot help but recognize that the One who bestows reason has chosen to withhold reason, and that the ever-increasing darkness of our exile belies the dawn of redemption that crouches just over the horizon.
We read in the Torah this week that Yaakov (Jacob) and his sons settled in Egypt. They knew that their children faced a long and bitter exile. But they also knew that their children would emerge stronger and better able to survive.
In these bitter days, we can lament the folly of those who urge peace with those who reject peace, or we can recognize the divine plan revealing itself more clearly day by day, and rejoice in the coming of true peace at the end of days.
If you’re still unconvinced, or if you merely want a further view on the clarity of Gaza that almost no one sees, Charles Krauthammer’s latest column is worth a look.
Update: AP reports that thousands across the Mideast protest Gaza attacks. This is news?
A Few Words From the Wise
Posted by Yonason Goldson in Culture, Philosophy on January 4, 2009
I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these, but they have a ring of truth, and they certainly are entertaining.
What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
-Edward Langley, Artist (1928 – 1995)
There is no distinctly Native American criminal class…save Congress.
-Mark Twain
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson
If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do
read the newspaper you are misinformed.
–Mark Twain
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill
Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress….
But then I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-G. Gordon Liddy
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
– George Bernard Shaw
Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at GeorgetownUniversity
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
-Ronald Reagan (1986)
I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
-Will Rogers
If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free!
-P.J. O’Rourke
In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-Voltaire (1764)
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!
-Pericles (430 B.C.)
No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.
-Mark Twain (1866)
Talk is cheap…except when Congress does it.
-Unknown
The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.
-Ronald Reagan
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-Winston Churchill
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-Mark Twain
The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
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