QUOTES: CHARLES DICKENS

 

" If a man is not allowed to know his own name in a free country, how much is he allowed to know in a land of slavery?"

--as said by "Cheap Jack", from the short story "Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions" by CHARLES DICKENS

 

CRINGE PIC: SOMEONE PLEASE TAKE THE WARBABY OUT TO THE WOODSHED AND GIVE HIM A GOOD HIDING. HE RAISES THE BILE IN US AND WE WILL NOT HAVE IT!

  

 

I KNOW IT’S BEEN quite a few years now and memories fade and people’s faces blur with the passage of time, so I shouldn't be surprised finding that I am hard-pressed, now, to match names to faces with any accuracy.

IT'S THESE darn cataracts; they give everything a foggy halo. And that’s funny considering one of them is Adolf Hitler, the LAST person deserving any angel gear. The other, I am told, is the current United States Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth (who styles himself “Secretary of War”)*. If I squint, I can just make out one of them wearing a tailored suit with the sleeves and shoulders cut to display biceps and pec muscles. I can see that both have as a backdrop a rather large and intimidating eagle¹, its wings outstretched, with Hitler and Hegseth mirroring the gesture with their open-armed posture. As I’ve said, my old eyes can only see cloudy haloes around their heads; their faces are blurred and unclear. But one of them isn’t Hitler, though I’ll be danged if I can tell the difference.

 

 

CHEERS, JAKE.

 _______________________________________________

 

*Hegseth changed the name of the Defence Department to the “War Department”. He did so arbitrarily, and unconstitutionally, since only the U.S. Congress has the authority to name the various departments of government. But Hegseth, like Big Daddy Trump, won’t be deterred by the Constitution or the rule of law.

 

1. As a point of interest, the Great Seal of the United States, which is the country’s official coat of arms and national emblem (adopted in 1782) depicts an eagle holding arrows in one talon, symbolizing the power and readiness for war and an olive branch in the other, symbolizing peace. Here, Pete’s Department of War has altered the national emblem, depicting the eagle holding only arrows in its talons.  

 

    

 

 

 

HILARIOUS SELF-OWN BY ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST OBNOXIOUS PERSONS

 

 

    "Free Palestine"

FOR THOSE NOT FAMILIAR with the American Rabbi, Jacob Shmuley, (aka Jacob Shmuel Boteach) you are much better off than anyone who has had to listen to this aggravating blowhard for any length of time. It’s all you can do to not want to punch him in the face, even through your screen! It seems his schtick is to provoke any non-Jew into a response that he can then say was an example of antisemitism and look how he/her/they treat me and hate Jews. In this “Due Dissidence” podcast, hosts Keaton Weiss and Russell Dobular (both Jewish, BTW) play a clip of Rabbi Shmuley, apparently on vacation in Italy, taking to task an ‘obvious’ antisemite drinking a cappuccino at an outdoor café. The café is located next to a 500-year-old Ferrara Synagogue which serves as a memorial to the Jews from that area who were sent to concentration camps during WWII. Shmuley, who speaks while someone records his encounter with a ‘fascist’, coffee-drinking Jew-hater, is beside himself when his tirade doesn’t get the reaction he was looking for. The vid is both hilarious as well as informative.* 

 

Rabbi Shmuley, speaking loudly about the memorial and the suffering of the Jewish people during the war, then turns his ire on a café patron sitting at a table next to the synagogue/memorial, berating him for being there and disrespecting, apparently, all the Jews who died. Shouting at the café patron, he becomes apoplectic when the man calmly says two words to him in English: “Free Palestine”. The exchange goes on for a minute or two with the man calmly repeating the phrase, each time sending the rabbi into hysterical hissy fits. The gentleman didn’t respond to Shmuley’s provocations with angry words or actions, and that cut the rabbi off at the knees, leaving him sputtering and hissing like a wet cat caught in a rain shower until he (finally!) moves on. Priceless! 

  

CHEERS, JAKE.   _____________________________________

 

    Rabbi Shmulry on his soapbox again

*I AM REMINDED that putzes like Shmuley are part of a network of Jewish-Israeli organizations and individuals (“Hasbara”) that work to promote Jewish emigration to Israel by propagandizing how fantastic their society is and how dangerous and antisemitic the rest of the world is beyond Israel’s borders. [But, isn’t Israel the only country that does NOT have fixed borders? I guess it makes it easier to take over regions of neighbouring countries, claiming their land is yours. Just sayin’. Ed.] 

BUT, the meat of the matter here is that these “Hazbara” (“explaining”) folk seek to increase the Jewish population of Israel through propaganda. Of course they ignore the nearly 280,000 educated, skilled and prosperous Jewish-Israelis who have left the country for places like Crete, Cyprus, Greece, Thailand, and the United States since October 7, 2023, leaving a population that mostly favours extremists like Atamar Ben-Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Rabbi Shmuley. Which is worrying, when you consider that Israel is a nuclear weapons possessing nation with who knows how many deadly warheads. With the level of conflict and mayhem it has caused in the region these last few years, Israel does not seem as safe a place to live for a Jew as is advertised by Hasbara publications and through informal actors like Rabbi Shmuley who preach that under every rock there’s an antisemite waiting to strike.