Thursday, March 22, 2007

Lack of Communitarianism and its effect on the displaced

The greatest thing about the internet is its perpetual cache. From 1994 and on, when anything is done, there is almost always a presence of it on the web. This month marks the 10th anniversary of the Heavens Gate cult suicide. But unlike Jim Jones (leader of the Jonestown mass suicide which left about 1,000 dead), who left little of his history, Heavens Gate was prominent on the internet, even back in 1996.

In fact, their web site is still up: here

And here is a Google Groups message left by on one of the members here - note the date it was left. The woman who left it was found dead 3 months later, with 5 dollars worth of quarters in her pocket. Why 5 dollars worth of quarters you ask? Because the space ship hidden behind hale-bop comet had vending machines and arcades that she had planned to make use of....naturally. [Bizarre that such an advanced ship would rely on standard issue U.S. currency.]

Of course this is of no surprise, being that the founders of Heavens Gate both met at a psychiatric hospital while being hospitalized for schizophrenia. And yet, even though they managed to get at one point around 200 followers, to me cult suicide speaks nothing of those who partake in it, and everything of a society that allows it to occur. Today there is only one survivor of the Heavens Gate and he is still a firm believer in it. His childhood is described as an abusive mother and a father that left him when he was 3. When asked recently about his first meeting with the DO (the leader of Heavens Gate) he cried and said it was “like finally meeting my father.”

Jim Jones didn't kill a thousand people, and DO didn't kill 39. In my opinion, depression and our societies' reluctance to appreciate mental health did. Calling these people freaks is easy, but offering them mental health, a community of support and a non-profit driven health industry is something American society is wholly incapable of offering. What should be taken away from this 10 year anniversary is how little our society has progressed in this field and how much work still needs to be done. Because of cut backs, HMO's and regressive movements like Scientology (who also pressures former members to commit suicide and are vehemently opposed to psychiatry because L. Ron Hubbard was psychotic and frequently hospitalized) it is very likely that cult suicide will continue well into the future. As a 1st world society, this 10th year anniversary should be a disgrace to us all.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

One Night In Bangkok Makes a Jewish Man Humble

I was reading a Aish.com article on how wives should treat husbands and came across this post left in the comments section:

I grew up in a staunchly secular enviroment. However, as a young teen, became a "political" zionist, made aliyah, served in TZHAL and was a member of a kibbutz. Dating Jewish women, even in Israel was a difficult task. Some jews embrace liberalism and intermarry accordingly. My friends and I of similar back grounds, have all intermarried. We were not men who did not care about marrying a Jewish women. We intermarried by default and mostly to Asian women. There is a lack of man appreciation amongst all too many Jewish women......Filipina women treat jewish men "right." Why are the daughters of our people not competing?

As blame-the-victim as I typically am I'm surprised at myself for not automatically calling this guy a massive pussy. I myself have dated numerous Jewish women and have been left feeling relatively the same way as him. Not enough to drive me away, but enough to see why the Jewish man would go Asian. Jewish women do tend to focus on fault (to a fault - badum bum) and few are willing to settle for less than a doctor or lawyer or his lesser valued and more unattractive cousin, the accountant. But Jewish men also tend to be babied and grow up less aggressive than their non-Jewish counterpart.


So what do all these women do? Do they just not get married? Do they marry out of fear of loneliness? Many create their destiny. They hate men so they treat their husbands like shit which allows him to cheat which, when he gets caught, further proves to the woman that men suck. I don't want to get into the whole Freudian argument about why woman hate men as that seems to be a "which came first, the chicken or the egg" argument, in that, do women hate men because their fathers are lame, or are their fathers lame because their mothers hate men? [by the way, whenever you get a question like this the answer is almost always "a little of both"].


Maybe this guys story is purely anecdotal and circumstantial and not to be used as an argument for or against anything. On a macro level one could argue his lack of aggressivness is evident in his choice. Instead of trying to find the right Jewish woman or changing, he just threw in the towel and opted out of the game by picking the first Asian peasant that walked by. Hate to be politically incorrect but lets face it: offer these women the chance at something more than white rice twice a day for the next 30 years and you just found yourself a wife. Call me insensitive, but I've been all over asia, trust me, its true.


But lets say its not his fault. Lets say the Jewish woman starts out life disrespecting man. This isn't too hard to imagine being that they grow up watching their brothers and fathers being babied and their mothers handling everything. Can you really blame them for not being appreciative? Well yes, you certainly can. At about the age of 25 you have to stop blaming your family and start blaming yourself. The irony is that the Jewish woman is just as impotent as the Jewish male they grow to hate. Unsexual, complain and expect millions for it - most end up spinsters on Jdate.


So who do we blame? Like I said before, when you get a question like this the answer is almost always "a little of both." We blame Jewish women for not competing or even caring and we blame the Jewish men for throwing in the towel way too quickly. Ladies, face it, we pretty much all grew up in the city, don't expect your "man" to be tarzan - be happy with the men that the society you've helped create and support produced. Men, face it, your lame and no one cares that your a freelance web designer so work more on your personality and stop throwing in the towel just because a few girls rejected you.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

- A Bloodless Holocaust –

There is a Yiddish phrase my grandparents used to say which transliterates roughly to: besser tzu shtarben staiendik aider tzu leben oif di kni. It translates to "better to die standing than live on your knees." This phrase always touched a nerve in me, especially since both of my grandparents are survivors. The phrase paints a portrait of a strong open-eyed people, a community of Che Guevaras! A community of people ready to do anything it took to fight for what they believed in, even if it meant death.

But I knew better. Although the phrase may sound nice, it was never actually put into practice by many Jews. The Nazis told the Jews to do something and the Jews did it, some even volunteered. I suppose it took 60 years to finally come to the realization as to what this phrase really meant. I believe the phrase wasn’t an outright lie, but rather, oblivion or delusion. The Jewish love for life and peaceful existence was so strong they would rather die falsely standing than live on their knees. It became Jewish practice, as a community, to deny reality. The ability to ignore what is actually going on, and don blinders to the world, became unprecedented and were only closely matched by the Cambodians in the 1970’s. The reality was that the Jews never fought as a unified community against the Nazis because they were so busy convincing themselves it would never happen that when it finally did occur it was too late to fight back. So much for dying standing with pride.

It was this flaw within the Jewish mentality that allowed the Holocaust to occur as widespread as it did and it is this same flaw that is destroying the Jews once again, 60 years later. Inter-faith marriage is decimating the Jewish population. 50% or more of marriages are inter-faith. The numbers are clear: In the 1980 American census, Jews constituted 2% or 5-6 million people in America. As of the latest census, the number has halved to 3 million, or half the number of Jewish victims of the holocaust. The American population got larger and the Jewish population got smaller. This is easy to comprehend. If Jewish parents have a son who marries a non-Jew, the Jewish population one generation later has lost 5.5 people (the mother, father, son, and potentially 2.5 children).

Just like the Jews of yesteryear were desperate to live peacefully, the Jews of today are desperate to please their children, allowing them to do anything, including inter-faith marriage. And once again, 60 years later, the Jewish population has done almost nothing on a unified communitarianist level to stop this bloodless holocaust. The Jews of today would rather bicker about kashrut certificates and the supposed rise of anti-Semitism (anti-Semiitism does not ebb and flow, it is a constant) than admit what is happening to our population and people – this sounds like a familiar plan my grandparents know all too much about.

During World War II, the chances of surviving the war as a Jew were a mere 7%. The chances of surviving the war as a Jewish resistance fighter was 85%. It is better to die standing then to live on our knees. The question is, when are the Jews going to stand?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Gandhi Was anti-Zionist!

This article: here speaks about Gandhi and his relation to Zionism. Now my conservatism reflex is to vilify Gandhi for his pro-arab mentality. But then I thought about it more.

To be fair, this was 1938 in a non-globalized world speaking to a man in a 3rd world nation - so if he wasn't grasping the full extent of the soon-to-be Jewish annihilation, I don't know if I entirely blame him. After all, if the American Jews didn't really know what was going on, then why would Gandhi?

Furthermore, I don't entireley disagree with his theory that the Jews should have fought for their rights in Germany. As I've stated in numerous prior posts, I believe that if you never fight back and always get kicked around, how stunned can you be when they kick harder one day? The basic theory here is that, the sadness is not that Gandhi was against the British opening up Palestine to Jewish refugees, but rather that Jews needed Britain at all in the first place.

Around the world, every time we even utter the word "Mohammed" a Muslim man beheads 5 people and burns down a couple of [insert structure here]. Why? Because they don't fuck around. Now I'm not saying that the Jews should have been as drastic, but I have a feeling if they were, the holocaust never would have happened. Imagine if every time a stone was thrown through a Jewish stores' window, the community would wake up to find 5 Lutheran children hanging in the public square? You wanna fuck with those guys? I don't.

In a way, Gandhi was preaching what he did. He fought back. However he did it is irrelevant, but he believed in rights, and fought for them. The Jews believed they had and deeserved nothing, and thus had nothing to fight for. Now that I think about it, Gandhi, I see your vision - if you truly believe in your own dignity, then its worth fighting for. But no one will just hand it to you, not Britain, or Germany. Gandhi realized that and took his peoples dignity back. Why didn't we?

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Jew Interviews Sikh - Plain and Simple

Below is a second in the communitarianist interview series of my blog. Just like the last interview, it is exclusive, in its entirety, and 100% unedited. The interview is with a Mr. Guruka Singh and is an online prominent figure of the Sikh faith. My questions were based on an assumption that most paranoid Jews such as myself have (everything is being destroyed, polarized, assimilated and ultimately, annihilated). But Mr. Singh reminded me that this isn't necessarily the case of all small minorities, which of course is great to hear! This interview assumes you know the basics of Sikh faith and thus does not cover the basic tenants of Sikh religion, which can be learned about here. To the right, in the links section, is a link to Mr. Singh's web site so please take a visit and donate if you can. And without further ado:

1) I suppose the first question should be who are you and what do you do/represent?

Well, first and foremost, I’m a human being. I don’t mean that facetiously. We all need to become more human at all times. Man = mind and Hu = ray of light. So, to be human means that one’s mind becomes full of light. I’m currently serving as the Executive Director of SikhNet.com, a Web site that connects Sikhs around the world and serves as a deep set of resources for all things related to the Sikh way of life.

2) How do you think the Sikh culture is holding up in America? Is Punjabi still being taught to 2nd and 3rd generations here in the States?

There is no such thing as Sikh culture. There’s Punjabi culture and there’s American culture. The Sikh way of life is not about culture. It’s about consciousness. The language of the Sikh Gurus is Gurmukhi, not Punjabi. Many modern day Punjabi speakers cannot read and understand the songs of our Gurus. But that’s not as important as it may seem. The effect of these songs is direct and occurs without needing to understand the words.

3) Can one convert to Sikhism?

Personally, I prefer not to call the Sikh way of life an “-ism.” It’s simply a way of life and a state of consciousness, along with a set of very effective tools for maintaining one’s consciousness. My personal view is this: What is a Sikh? It is a very simple thing. “Sikh” means student. A student of what? A student of life. One who is here on this earth to learn how the universe works. The fact is, everyone is born a Sikh. Everyone is born to learn and understand reality. Some become Christians, some become Jews, some become Buddhists, some pretend that they are Sikhs, and a very few remain true Sikhs.

4) Is there a Sikh “zionism” of sorts prevalent here in America? Is a “Khalistan” still something the Sikh population pursues, or do you think since there is a Sikh Indian president the persecution may subside?

I cannot generalize about the ‘Sikh population.’ I’m not a political creature. I’m sure there are individuals to whom a sovereign Khalsa state is an important matter. To me, a Sikh can live anywhere and live happily and serve effectively. I think it’s great for global awareness of Sikh identity that the PM of India is a Sikh. Persecution is very much an interactive matter. I firmly believe that one literally creates one’s own reality by the thoughts one thinks. I simply bless everyone and pay no attention to anyone who has hate in their heart. Let them be blessed as well.

5) What do Sikhs think of Judaism? Do they ever mention the similarities between the two religions? (equality, monotheism, persecution etc...)

Oh, Sikhs and Jews have a lot in common. We both love to feed people! Enter a Jewish household and you will be offered food right away; same thing in a Sikh household.

6) What does your community do about inter-faith marriage? Is it prevalent? Has your population here in the States declined because of it?

This is not a concern to me. Again, it’s not about culture, it’s about one’s personal relationship to one’s Guru. Either that relationship is strong or it’s not. It’s very personal. I encourage everyone to marry the person with whom they belong. Some of the best Sikhs I know do not look like Sikhs, and many turbaned Sikhs do not live as Sikhs. It’s way beyond labels. It’s a matter of the heart.

7) America often has a clandestine way of cutting people off from their culture and religion through individualism and its inevitable consequences. How is the Sikh community dealing with individualism amongst its followers, in particular its younger generations? Has it even been an issue? Is attendance at Sikh temples down?

We encourage individualism; let everyone be himself or herself. We all grow from individual consciousness into group consciousness and thence into universal consciousness. Some Sikh temples seem to have no “juice.” They have become political or ritualistic. But some Sikh temples are alive and full of energy and the joy of worshipping together and eating together. Attendance is down in the former, and up in the latter.

8) Although I doubt there is any specific proof, it is widely known that the Israelis often support, via arms and finance, the Kurds and their struggle for Kurdistan. What if Israel, or any nation for that matter, started supporting the Shaheed Khalsa Force, how would the Sikh community react to it, both here in the States and in the Punjabi/Kashmir regions?

I must admit my unabashed ignorance of these matters and fully admit my inability to speculate regarding them.

9) Has there been any mistaken persecution against Sikhs after 9/11 here in America?

Well, there was the whole Balbir Singh Sodhi matter which occurred right after 9/11. But actually I think 9/11 had a very positive effect on awareness about Sikh identity, which actually led to less persecution. Immediately after 9/11, SikhNet became very active in training police, community leaders and airport security personnel all over the USA about Sikh identity.

10) Do you think your dress code, much like the Chasidic dress code, is a way to protect against assimilation? Or are there many Sikhs that do cut their hair and not partake in any of the mandatory 5 K’s? Is it prevalent more so here in America or is it the same rate here as in India?

To keep one’s hairs is a personal decision. Either one experiences the sacredness of keeping the body intact, or one does not. Some of the most beautiful Sikhs I have met have not kept their hairs and wear Western clothing. Sikhi exists in the heart and actions of the person, not in the appearance. Keeping the roop (form) of a Sikh is a personal discipline. It is a personal matter. Either one experiences the benefits of it or one does not. In my travels this year I am seeing a renaissance among the Sikh youth around the world. They are awakening to the direct experience of the discipline of the form and practice of the Sikh way of life.

11) Has there been a polarization of Sikh religiosity? (ie has there been a shift to-wards extremes on both ends of the religious spectrum)

No, not in my experience. The Sikh way of life is not about extremes. It’s about balance. It’s easy to be an extremist and it’s easy to be lazy. It’s difficult to be balanced.

12) I have always felt it a shame that there isn’t more Jewish/Sikh dialogue and always wanted to start a Sikh Jewish Organization for better understanding and relationships. This isn’t a question, just a chance for you to say or ask what you want.

Yes, I agree with you on that. Let’s get it started. You know, the turban is just a large yarmulke.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

A Great Book

Every Jew should own a copy of this enlightening book.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Why Liberalism IS anti-Semitism

Lately I’ve been hearing a liberal argument that, on its face, seems difficult to argue with. The argument goes something along the lines of “I, as an american, am allowed to protest Israel because my tax dollars go to fund their army.” This is the argument usually used to counter-argue the anti-semitism veil which most pro-Israelis label such rabidly anti-Israel opponents. Here is why the argument fails, and in fact, further proves anti-semitic bias.

Israel gets billions in US aid, no argument there. Israel has since killed approximately 6-8000 Palestinians in an attempt, however wanton or reckless you may label it, to rid the area of militant terrorists. Therefore, as an American citizen who is indirectly paying for this, you should be allowed to protest it.

Over the past 15 years, the US has given approximately 20 Billion dollars in aid to Russia. The same country that has killed over 250,000 Chechens in an attempt, however wanton or reckless you may label it, to seize oil. They have also armed Iran with nuclear and non-nuclear weaponry which have been passed down to lord knows what militant groups.

Of all the street protests I have ever seen in NY, and of all the Caddilac Jew-hating liberals I have spoken to, NONE of them have ever mentioned how appalled they are at the fact that their tax dollars are indirectly going to Russia’s occupation of Chechnya purely for greed and oil.
Now, this proves one of two things:

(1) You’re either as unbelievably educated as you claim and know full well about the Russian massacres that you are paying for, but don’t care because you hate Jews.

-or-

(2) You are a puppet of the New York Times and BBC political agenda and you do what they say when they say and your only knowledge of anything in this world is their misinterpretation of it.

No matter which one you chose, you should probably be hung, but not until death, just for the pain of it all. Last time I checked, 250,000 is way more than 8,000.

8,000 deaths = 100’s of street protests
250,000 deaths = 0 street protests.

Admit it, you don’t hate Israel, and you don’t love humanity...you just simply hate Jews. And the prospect of being such a simpleton after all those years of education and high-horse PhD bullshit is simply too difficult to accept. Fortunately you’re smart enough to come up with rationalizations for everything. Fortunately, I’m here to prove those rationalizations wrong.