The Vicious Babushka

EPIC FAIL: Morris Allen Has A Sad Nobody Wants His Faux Kosher Stamp of Approval

So righteous: He got thousands of illegals deported and a Jew sent to prison for 30 years for pissing off the 1%.

Chewish Drooly Forverts sobs:

Robert Kaiser, a science teacher from New Hampshire with an interest in finding ethically produced kosher food, was excited when he learned of Magen Tzedek, a seal that would combine Jewish values and social justice in food production, spanning from the treatment of workers to environmental impact.

But almost four years after the Magen Tzedek Commission drafted its first standards, not one product bears the initiative’s seal. Kaiser recently voiced his complaints on the organization’s Facebook page, which displayed only two posts by the group since last May.

“Your arguments for ethical meat make a lot of sense; I agree with you,” he wrote. “Yet the four years of silence on the topic… speak volumes.”

Kaiser recently told the Forward, “When I look up what they do, I don’t see very much there. At the moment it’s a bit of a disappointment.”

Five years after the federal government’s largest ever immigration raid exposed rampant worker abuse at the country’s biggest kosher slaughterhouse, Magen Tzedek, which was meant to respond to the scandal, appears hardly more active today than Agriprocessors, the plant in Postville, Iowa, that the feds’ raid shut down. There is little evidence that the project has capitalized on the calls the scandal sparked for ethically created kosher food.

That is a far cry from what Morris Allen, Magen Tzedek’s program director, predicted in 2010. By the end of the year, he said then, 15 companies would be on board with his group’s seal. In an interview May 14, Allen told the Forward that his group is currently in talks with “three or four” companies.

Allen said he has learned not to make such bold predictions anymore.

“I don’t want to say any date, I’ve been burned too often,” he said.

But personal misjudgments by Allen — a Conservative rabbi with no prior food certification experience — are not the only reasons that Magen Tzedek remains a dream: There is also wariness toward the seal on the part of kosher meat producers.

Read more: http://forward.com/articles/176814/magen-tzedek-ethical-kosher-seal-stalled-amid-orth/?p=all#ixzz2U2VNb2Vc

If Morris Allen had started out giving his stamp of righteousness to non-food products, for example clothing manufactured in fair trade conditions, he would have had much more support for his efforts. But the whining, entitled little crybaby wanted a cut of that "sweet kosher endorsement money" that "the Orthodox have a monopoly of."

Mashgichim (kosher supervisors) do not make a whole bunch of money. They get paid about the same as anyone else in the food service industry, which is to say, bupkies. Also, they have EXPERIENCE in what is required to maintain standards of halachic kashrus, something that Morris Allen knows very little about since he has made up his "all new" set of standards but want to use the old-fashioned word "kosher" thereby creating confusion. Kosher food producers wanted to avoid mixing "answering to a higher authority" with Morris Allen's "right" to have his logo on stuff.

 

Workers Sacked After Joke About "Baking Jews" in Toy Oven

Des Moines Register reports:

Two northern Iowa women were fired from their jobs at a New Hampton assembly plant for allegedly joking about “burning the Jews” inside a toy oven they were carrying.

Christina Ott of New Hampton and her sister, Susan Ott of Lawler, were fired in late January from the Trimark Corp. assembly plant in New Hampton.

According to plant officials’ testimony at two public unemployment claims hearings, five Trimark workers reported seeing the two walk through an area of the plant Dec. 19, carrying a toy Easy Bake oven with gingerbread men inside.

One of the workers said the women told their colleagues, “Happy Hanukkah. We’re burning the Jews.” The other workers were some distance away and said they didn’t hear any such comments by the women.

After the two were fired, they applied for unemployment benefits and the state scheduled separate public hearings to deal with each claim. Both women testified that they didn’t make the comment, and said the only reason they were carrying the toy oven around was so they could participate in a Christmas sweater contest at the plant.

“We did not have a Christmas sweater, so we decided to give out gingerbread men instead,” Susan Ott testified.

Read more at Des Moines Register.

 

My Message to the Congregations Who Invited Pamela Geller to Speak, After She Was Turned Away by Great Neck Synagogue:

Hate Speech is Not Free Speech

I am sure that you are familiar with all the anti-Semitic myths and libels that have been going around for centuries, and the excuses that anti-Semites make for themselves.

“The Talmud says that Jews are commanded to hate Goyim!”
“Circumcision is cruelty to little babies!”
“Jews make you pay a Kosher Tax on food!”
“Jewish ritual slaughter is cruelty to animals!”
“Mikvah is degrading to women!”
“A Jew was convicted of child molesting, so all Jews must be child molesters!”
“I don’t hate all Jews but those Ultra-Orthodox sure are scary!”
“We must ban those rabbinical courts that judge according to Halachah!”

You have heard them all.

You are probably also aware that some of the people who believe in these myths are active in movements to ban brit milah [circumcision] and shechitah [kosher slaughter], to prevent Jews from constructing eruvin [Sabbath boundaries] and have joined with neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. If they are not marginalized in society, they can do a lot of damage to our community.

Would you invite such a person into your shul, to address your congregation? Or would you say they can enjoy their right to free speech, somewhere far away from you?

Yet you invited Pamela Geller to speak at your shul, after she was turned away from another synagogue who realized that her message is identical to the myths and libels that I have listed above, yet substituting “Koran” for “Talmud,” “Halal” for “kosher” and “Sharia” for “Halachah.” Her accusations against Muslims are just as false and offensive as the same accusations that are made against us. She may have a right to free speech according to the law of the land, but that does not mean any right to any venue.

I am deeply disappointed as an Orthodox Jew, that you have offered a platform to someone who spreads hate speech and is affiliated with neo-Nazis.

We should not stand for the same hatred and intolerance towards others that we have endured for so many long centuries.

Sincerely,

The Vicious Babushka

George Washington Never Said That! The Zombie Fake Quotes That Can't Be Killed!

Bogus quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, attributed here to LOLCat.

Various quotations, attributed to famous people, are frequently cited on The Internet in support of this or that popular cause. This in itself is a logical fallacy, the "Appeal to Authority." The argument is, "This famous person supports our cause! So how can you not support our cause? Do you know more than this famous person?" The argument fails if the famous person being quoted is not an acknowledged authority on the subject, or if there is disagreement among authorities, or if the famous person's quotation is taken out of context. The argument certainly fails is the famous person never even said what is attributed to him.

Here is a sample of some of the bogus quotations that are being circulated, mostly on Twitter and Facebook, attributed to various of the United States "founding fathers" on the subject of gun control.

1. "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not." Attributed to Thomas Jefferson (spoofed above in LOLCat.)

Monticello.org has this to say:

Earliest known appearance in print: No appearances in print found.

Earliest known appearance in print, attributed to Thomas Jefferson: See above.

Other attributions: None known.

Status: We have not found any evidence that Thomas Jefferson said or wrote, "Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."

The pro-gun website SAF.org sourly has this to say about the fake Jefferson quotes: "Thomas Jefferson has many confirmed quotes on our website. Why anyone felt it necessary to make up a quote is ludicrous. Maybe an anti-gunner did it to discredit all the real quotes."

2. "A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."--George Washington.

This is the Zombie Fake Quote that can't be killed! What makes it so pernicious is that Washington did say something very similar, but the Fake Quote has been manipulated in order to give it a meaning that is quite different from the original context. Here is the authentic Washington quote:

"A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies."

The original quotation shows that Washington clearly intended a country to have industrial independence. The bogus, manipulated quotation attempts to insinuate that people need to have weapons in order to resist their own government, a sentiment that Washington clearly did not share when he forcibly put down the Whisky Rebellion and Shay's Rebellion.

3. "Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence. The church, the plow, the prairie wagon, and citizen's firearms are indelibly related. From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to insure peace, security and happiness, the rifle and the pistol are equally indispensable." --another bogus George Washington quote.

Guncite.com, a pro-2nd Amendment website, warned its supporters to avoid using this fake quote. Of course nobody listens to them, this bogus quotation is all over the Internet.

This quotation, sometimes called the "liberty teeth" quote, appears nowhere in Washington's papers or speeches, and contains several historical anachronisms: the reference to "prairie wagon" in an America which had yet to even begin settling the Great Plains (which were owned by France at the time), the reference to "the Pilgrims" which implies a modern historical perspective, and particularly the attempt by "Washington" to defend the utility of firearms (by use of statistics!) to an audience which would have used firearms in their daily lives to obtain food, defend against hostile Indians, and which had only recently won a war for independence.

The "99 99/100 percent" is also an odd phrase for 18th century America, which tended not to use fractional percentages. It's clear that "Washington" is addressing "gun control" arguments which wouldn't exist for another couple of centuries, not to mention doing so in a style that is uncharacteristic of the period, and uncharacteristic of Washington's addresses to Congress, both of which exhibited a high degree of formality.

4. "1935 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!"--Attributed to Adolf Hitler IM"S.

From our friends at SAF.org:

This passage sometimes features different punctuation and slight wording changes including a beginning of, ‘For the first time in history, a....’ Various citations include: Adolf Hitler, April 15, 1935, in address to the Reichstag; Adolf Hitler 1935 'Berlin Daily' (Loose English Translation) April 15th, 1935 Page 3 Article 2 by Einleitung Von Eberhard Beckmann -"Abschied vom Hessenland!". "Adolf" is sometimes misspelled as ‘Adolph’ on the Internet.

While the above 'quote' makes a nice T-shirt, there are numerous problems with this alleged statement. (1) It violates the rule of not beginning a sentence with a number. (2) It isn’t phrased in Hitler’s style. (3) Major changes to the German gun laws occurred in 1928 and 1931 (under the Weimar Republic) and in 1938 (under the Nazi’s). No significant changes happened in the gun registration laws in 1935. Furthermore, the changes in 1928 and 1931 were designed to disarm the Nazis and Communists and therefore it is doubtful that Hitler would trumpet the success of any law aimed at his goon squads.

Until then, please click here for some proven Nazi Quotes. (Coming soon)
[Link never provided!--VB]

5. "It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people who count the vote!"--attributed to Josef Stalin.

This one is obviously bogus for a number of reasons. First, Stalin did not speak English, and would not have made a pun in English, but which makes no sense in Russian. Second, votes were not counted in Stalin's Soviet Union. All votes were for the Party, Stalin always received 100% of the vote. 

A similar quote was actually said by William M. "Boss" Tweed, a corrupt 19th-century New York political lord. "As long as I count the vote, what are you going to do about it?" Why don't right-wingers quote "Boss" Tweed? Maybe they don't even know who he was.

6. "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."--attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Frequently quoted by those who would deny government benefits such as food stamps to poor people.

These silly little aphorisms were actually composed by William John Henry Boetcker, some dude that nobody ever heard of. He seems to have been a 19th-Century Bryan J. Fischer. The first person to mistakenly attribute this collection to Lincoln was none other than everybody's affable granddaddy Ronald Reagan. Snopes has the whole story.

How can you tell if a quote attributed to a famous person is fake?

Generally speaking the rule to identifying Fake Quotes is:

1. If it's on The Internet it is probably fake. (however real quotes have occasionally, although rarely, been found on The Internet)

2. If it's in a book, it is probably authentic. However fake quotes have also appeared in print before there was The Internet.

If you come across any quotes that you think might be bogus, please share them!

Virus of the Caribbean: Curse of the Carnival Cruise Buffet

Vision of the Seas, Renamed to Virus of the Seas

By Phil Wahba and Martinne Geller

March 8 (Reuters) - Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd said on Friday that its Vision of the Seas ship arrived in Port Everglades, Florida after 108 people fell sick with a gastrointestinal illness believed to be caused by a norovirus.

Royal Caribbean shares were down 2.9 percent at $34.35 in afternoon trading, while Carnival shares slipped 1.5 percent to $35.69.

The incident was the latest black eye for the cruise industry trying to find its footing again after several high profile mishaps.

Royal Caribbean said those sickened have responded to the over-the-counter medicine they were given. Some 105 of 1,991 passengers and 3 crew members of 772 aboard fell ill.

Norovirus outbreaks are fairly frequent on cruise ships. In December, some 194 passengers and 11 crew members aboard the luxury cruise ship Queen Mary 2 were sickened and suffered from vomiting and diarrhea.

In 2012, including the Queen Mary 2 incident, a total of 16 outbreaks on cruise ships were reported to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, up from 14 in 2011. Vessels are required to notify the agency when 2 percent of those on board develop a gastrointestinal illness.

Last month, thousands of passengers spent nearly five days on a disabled cruise ship operated by Carnival Corp in the Gulf of Mexico.

Carnival's Triumph was returning to Galveston, Texas from Cozumel, Mexico, on the third day of a four-day cruise when an engine-room fire knocked out power and plumbing across most of the ship.

In January 2012, the Costa Concordia, also operated by Carnival Corp, ran aground off the Italian coast and killed 32 passengers.

Read more at Huffington Post.

DOOFUS OF THE DAY: Of All The Purim Costumes in the World, Why Did Dov Hikind Go Blackface?

EPIC FAIL: Doofus Hikind and Devil Girl

Dov Hikind apolgizes to everyone in the whole wide world for being a horrible Douche:

Some people have marveled at what they’ve characterized as my insensitivity in wearing the costume I wore on Purim. My initial reaction in learning of this was one of shock because my intention was never to hurt or make fun of anyone. Those who know me—in politics and in my personal life—already know this. But others who don’t know me have expressed hurt and outrage, so I am writing to address that once and for all. Unintentional as they were, I recognize now that the connotations of my Purim costume were deeply offensive to many.

The question that is on the tip of everyone's tongue is why did he even do this in the first place? There are like a bazillion different costume choices that could have been made, Mr. Hikind (who is a freaking politician!) had to go with the one that offends the maximum number of people. 

WHATTA FAIL.

Life Aboard the Cruise Ship From Hell

Cruise Ship in a Yellow Haze

Carnival cruise ship hell continues with passengers told to defecate in plastic bags and urinate in the shower as the stench becomes so overpowering that people fall ill

Conditions causing problems for disabled and elderly passengers on board the Carnival Triumph

Passengers report there is no air conditioning, no diapers for babies, the toilets won't flush and four-hour lines for food

Ship starts to give free alcohol to passengers

Among passengers are 500 McDonalds employees on 'team-building' trip

One passenger reported that 'on deck looks like a shanty town' as passengers slept in the open air to avoid the stench

12 cruises on the Triumph have now been cancelled by company

Medical staff will be waiting on the docks in Mobile to check passengers

Travelers are using what limited cell phone coverage they have to call their families and are reporting overflowing toilets, unbearable smells and scarce food supplies.

The conditions on the Carnival Triumph are causing particular problems for the elderly and the disabled.

The vessel is crawling towards Mobile, Alabama after becoming stranded in the Gulf of Mexico because of an engine fire.

Ms Kerreghan's friend Mary Poret, whose 12-year-old daughter is also on the boat, said that it had been heartbreaking to say goodbye to her on the phone.

She said that they had driven from their homes in Texas to Alabama so that they could welcome their young daughters home. The women had stocked up on food, and if necessary antibiotics for the girls.

The boat is expected to dock between 2.30pm and 4.30pm on Thursday (ET). Medical staff will be on hand to help any passengers that need treatment but there have so far been no reports of anyone seriously ill.

One passenger, Anne Barlow, sent a text message from on board saying that less able passengers were 'struggling', the smell was 'gross' and her room was leaking sewage.

Some of the people on board reported that cabin carpets are soaked in urine, passengers are sleeping in tents on deck and scarce food supplies that has reduced them to eating cold onion sandwiches.

Vacationers were fighting over food, elderly people running out of medications and formula and diaper supplies were limited for babies, according to some reports.

Read more at Daily Mail

So far the passengers have not eaten each other, but we really won't know that until a head count is taken when the stinking hulk reaches port.

EPIC FAIL: "Israeli Flag is Banned in Dearborn!" Uh, No. It's Totally Not.

Right-wing Outrage Du Jour is about an anti-Muslim extremist who accompanied Quran-burning Terry Jones at a provocation outside a Dearborn high school. The activist had a pair of Israeli flags with him, in a lame attempt to disguise the Islamophobic demonstration as something supposedly "pro-Israel."

This caused a flutter on Twitter with a bunch of people tweeting "The Israeli Flag is Banned in Dearborn!"

Here is the flag of Israel flying high in Dearborn. IT'S NOT ILLEGAL TO FLY THE FLAG OF ISRAEL IN DEARBORN.

Flag of Israel in Dearborn

And here is our DOOFUS OF THE DAY:

Anti-zionist blogger @viciousbabushka is happy about Israeli flags being taken down by Cops in Dearborn: is.gd/gjTOsC

— gegenkritik (@gegenkritik) October 15, 2012

How many idiotic lies can you cram into 140 characters?

EPIC FAIL: "Free Gaza Movement" Goes Past Holocaust Denial, BLAMES JEWS for the Holocaust

The Free Gaza Movement, a U.S.-based activist group known for provisioning ships to run the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza, was hit with charges of anti-Semitism on Wednesday after posting a tweet claiming that Jews were responsible for the Holocaust.

“Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews,” read a Tweet posted Sunday to @freegazaorg, the official Twitter feed of the group, which includes Canadian author Naomi Klein and Bishop Desmond Tutu on its board of advisors.

An embedded link led to a video of a speech by known conspiracy theorist Eustace Mullins claiming that the word Nazi is an amalgam of the words “National socialism” and “Zionist.”

“[Hitler] allied with the Zionist Party, and the mission of the Nazis was to force the anti-Zionist Jews to accept Zionism — and this is what the concentration camps were about,” said Mr. Mullins, who died of a stroke in 2010.

Read more at National Post.

Avi Mayer, who captured the screen grab shown at the top of this post, documents the entire "Downfall" of Greta Berlin and her merry band of Holocaust deniers.

 

Rosh Hashanah Menu Planning FAIL: "Spend All Day Saturday Cooking!"

Spend the Day of Rest slaving over a hot stove, says "The Forward"

Devra Ferst, at SeriousEats.com and also "The Chewish Forward", makes the following recommendation on preparing for Rosh Hashanah:

Day 4: Saturday

Get Cooking: Turn on your stove and oven and start cooking! Use the day before your meal to prepare things that can be reheated like soup and cakes. If you have the time, do the prep work for your other dishes.

It's also time to set your table. Get creative with decoration: pomegranates, apples and honey are all traditional holiday foods and look beautiful when arranged on a table with candles.

Wait, what?

Seriously, has "The Forward" food editor never heard of something that we Jews observe, called Shabbat, a day when cooking and preparing for other days (including holidays) is strictly forbidden? And actually recommending that people should spend two freaking days slaving over a hot stove, when everything can be accomplished the day before, even if you are hosting a crowd?

Yes, we understand that not all Jews observe Sabbath or keep kosher, but still enjoy the holidays. At the same time, the food editor of a news source that calls itself "Jewish" should at least be familiar with the basic customs and traditions of Jewish observance, and not commit the blunder known as "Do not put a stumbling block before the blind," which really means, do not cause someone to sin inadvertently. Of course, don't deliberately trip blind people, that's really mean, but the commandment is meant to be more than just taken literally.

That said, here is our recipe for Rosh Hashanah Honey Challah which we shared 2 years ago. DO NOT bake this tomorrow, there is plenty of time on Sunday.

EPIC FAIL: Zionist Organization of America Loses 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Status

ZOA Chairman Morton Klein with BFF's Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann.

The Zionist Organization of America’s tax-exempt status has been revoked after the group missed three consecutive years of filings to the Internal Revenue Service, the Forward has learned.

The 115-year-old Zionist group has not been allowed to accept tax-deductible donations since February.

ZOA spokesman David Drimer, the group’s executive director, said that the sanction was the result of a ‘technical misunderstanding,’ and that since it happened, the ZOA has ‘never intentionally’ misrepresented itself. He said that the group is nearly ready to apply for a retroactive reinstatement of its tax exemption.

In an email provided to the Forward, ZOA tax attorney Tyler Korn wrote that ‘serious failures by the ZOA’s accountants, management and Board’ led to the loss of the group’s exemption.

Drimer, who previously was associate publisher of the Forward, said that the lost exemption is no secret and that he talked ‘with numerous individuals about it every day.’ But Drimer cited a memorandum prepared by Korn saying that the group has no obligation to broadly publicize the sanction.

That opposition to publicizing the lost exemption has been a cause of dissent on the group’s national board. Steven Goldberg, a vice chairman of the national board and the chair the ZOA’s Los Angeles chapter, has argued for broader public disclosure.

‘I believe we have a fiduciary responsibility to disclose,’ Goldberg told the Forward. ‘I don’t understand not telling people.’

Read more at Forward.com.

I must say this was breathtakingly stupid. How many officers do they have making 6-figure salaries? I have my own 501(c)(3) and I have automatic reminders to update every year with the IRS. And I don’t pay myself any salary, much less 6 figures.

Jewish Republicans Blast Obama Campaign for Including the Name of Anti-Zionist Rabbi on its Website, Even Though They Chose an Anti-Zionist Rabbi as GOP Liason

The Republican Jewish Coalition took a close look at the Obama campaign’s newly released list of 600+ rabbinic supporters and is calling on the campaign to sever its ties to one of them.

The RJC’s target is Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, a California Renewal rabbi who has endorsed the Palestinian BDS call and is a member of the advisory board and rabbinical council of the far-left Jewish Voice for Peace.

She was the only rabbi to speak at a controversial 2008 interfaith dialogue dinner in New York hosted for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, where she discussed the Holocaust and expressed support for Palestinian rights and for Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation.

In its press release, the RJC writes:

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) today expressed profound outrage at the inclusion of radical rabbi Lynn Gottlieb on the official list released by the Obama campaign of “Rabbis for Obama.” Rabbi Gottlieb has a long and troubling history, which includes dining with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, being the first American rabbi to visit Tehran, and serving in an organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, which the Anti-Defamation League has called one of the “top ten anti-Israel groups.”

By promoting and showcasing Rabbi Gottlieb as one of Pres. Obama’s supporters, the Obama campaign lends legitimacy and credibility to a rabbi whose extreme views are well beyond the mainstream of the Jewish community and the mainstream of America.

According to RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks, there can be only two explanations for her inclusion in the list: 1) the Obama campaign failed to properly vet the rabbis on their official list, or 2) they did properly vet the rabbis and chose to ignore Rabbi Gottlieb’s radical views.

Either way, this speaks volumes about the Obama campaign’s judgment and the RJC calls on the Obama campaign to immediately remove her from any formal or official involvement in the campaign.

Read more at JTA.org.

The RJC, before shrieking with outrageous outrage, should remember that they also selected as their "Jewish outreach director" a Rabbi with ties to the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta:

The Jewish outreach official for New York Republicans quit Wednesday, due to revelations of his ties to an anti-Zionist haredi group.

Yossi Gestetner, named director of Jewish Outreach for the New York Republican State Committee on June 12, quit Wednesday after The Jewish Channel published a detailed account of his PR work on behalf of True Torah Jews Against Zionism.

The investigative report showed Gestetner also advocated other controversial positions, including the custom among the haredi Orthodox to consult with a rabbinical authority before reporting child molestation to the police. Haaretz.

 In the case of the "Rabbis for Obama" it is just a listing of a bunch of names on a website, no indication that any of these people are official spokespersons for the Obama campaign.

In the case of the Republicans choosing a Neturei Karta sympathizer as official liason to the Jewish community, that is much more of an embarrassment.

Why Are People So Stupid? Why? WHY??

Guard your eyes, but don't give yourself a concussion walking into a street pole!

Jerusalem - Soon, it will no longer be necessary for charedi men to walk around while covering their eyes with their hands to avoid seeing women.

Recently, a new start-up company has begun marketing and selling special glasses in charedi neighborhoods such as Meah Shearim. The purpose of the glasses is to prevent charedi men from seeing immodestly-dressed women.

The glasses contain blurry lenses that obscure the wearer’s vision and do allow men not to see more than three meters.  For those who already wear glasses, the company has designed stickers that can be affixed to the existing pair of glasses which will obscure the vision.

Read more at Vos Iz Neias.

EPIC SALE: Please Buy from This Vendor in Spite of Funny Engrish

The toady will revile the scroll so you don't have to do it yourself!

Seriously, Babushka loves Porat Jewelry. You can't make money from a blog, so we created the Zionist Mall to sell Israeli stuff. Porat is a high-end vendor, creating exquisite custom-made wedding rings and personalized jewelry, we can't help it if English is not their primary language and they make funny errors in their ad copy.

Oh and, patronize the Zionist Mall, it will soon be Rosh Hashanah!

EPIC FAIL: Sorry, Crybabies, Israel is Not Tsarist Russia

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL -JULY 16: Ultra-Orthodox Jewish children wear handcuffs as they protest against a uniform draft law to replace the Tal Law on July 16, 2012, in Jerusalem, Israel. The Tal Law, which exempts ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students from mandatory military service, was declared unconstitutional by the High Court in February, and is due to expire in August. Getty Images.

The same whackjobs who exploited little children by dressing them up in Holocaust-themed costumes to protest something-or-other, are at it again. This time they have rounded up the same little children for yet another media photo-op, this time to complain about the horrible, horrible Zionists who are about to take little 5-year-old children and draft them into the IDF for 25 years!

Oh wait, except that they are totally doing no such thing!

The "horrible, horrible decree" that teh ebil Zionists have suggested, is that the Haredi population should perform the same service as all other Israeli citizens.

The question you might have is, why have they been exempted from service up until now?

The reason is that Ben-Gurion, who was very ferociously anti-religious, did not want the Haredim to be part of the "new" Israel. He also foolishly believed that the Haredi population was shrinking, so he agreed to keep them out of the IDF and out of public life as they dwindled and became extinct.

Well, Ben-Gurion was wrong about a bunch of stuff, not the least of which was his belief that the Haredi population was shrinking and on the verge of extinction. The population (כן ירבו) has increased to the point where they have become a significant demographic group, and what might have been acceptable for a marginal group of a few thousand at most who wished to subsist on the fringes of society, they must now assume the same responsibilities as all other Israeli Jewish citizens in order to avoid becoming a burden.

It is also totally ridiculous to claim that if they are conscripted, they will be forced to give up their Judaism. OK, maybe there are some people who would like to see that, but, it ain't gonna happen. There is an entire battalion of Haredi soldiers in the IDF and if the very "worst" should happen, the IDF will create several more such battalions where they can perform their military service while still learning Torah every day.

 

UPDATE: Romney Campaign Cancels Tisha B'Av Fundraiser After Massive Outrage

Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has been forced to scrap a $50,000 per plate fundraiser scheduled to take place during his visit to Jerusalem because the date coincided with a solemn Jewish day of mourning.

The fundraiser, which was supposed to be a "a small meeting, but a big fund-raiser," according to a source quoted in the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, was set to take place on July 29, amid the Romney campaign's first foreign policy tour.

But July 29 is also Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of fasting in some traditions of the religion, in which catastrophic events like the destruction of the First and Second Temples and the Holocaust are mourned.

Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, pointed to a tweet by Natasha Mosgovaya, a political correspondent for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, that stated on Thursday morning that the campaign would in fact not be holding the fundraiser. The tweet quoted a Romney official saying the campaign was "aware of the sensitivity of that date." Saul declined to comment on whether the fundraiser had been canceled or would be rescheduled.

Jonny Daniels, a leading Republican political strategist in Israel, told The Huffington Post that the campaign had been aware of the date of the holiday when it scheduled the fundraiser. The campaign thought it could hold the event in a way that would not offend, he said, but was taken by surprise at the ferocity of the public outcry over the timing.

"It wasn't really a gaffe," Daniels said. "They knew what the day was, but they were looking for the correct time and circumstance to do it. Instead it ended up seeming like a big dinner, but that's not really what it is."

"Don't worry, they're not going to not have a fundraiser," he added. "They'll find a way around it maybe by having a breaking of the fast meal combined with a Romney fundraiser."

Read more at Huffington Post.

I dunno, breaking the fast with a Romneyfeast just seems really lame.

EPIC FAIL: Mitt Romney to Hold Major Fundraiser in Israel, on Tisha B'Av [UPDATE: Cancelled]

Presumed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will host a fundraising event in Jerusalem at $60,000 or more per plate on July 29, The Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday.

Delegates are set to fly in from the US for the event, which a Republican source said would be “a small meeting, but a big fundraiser.”

Immediately after the fundraising meeting, Romney will host a conference in Jerusalem, where he will lay out his Middle East policy.

Romney plans to visit the UK for two days, attending the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on July 27, before flying to Israel.

The Republican candidate will stay in Jerusalem for two days, Israeli Republican political consultant Jonny Daniels told The Jerusalem Post, during which Romney will meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Shelly Yechimovich (Labor) and senior Palestinian officials.

Read more at Jerusalem Post.

July 29 is the fast day of Tisha B'Av, on which Jews mourn the destruction of the Temples of Jerusalem, the Expulsion from Spain, the Holocaust and other tragic events in Jewish history. It is the second most significant fast day, after Yom Kippur.

UPDATE: Mitt Romney will not be holding the fundraiser on Tisha B'Av now that this has been brought to the attention of the campaign.

EPIC FAIL: GOP Candidate Makes Excuses For Nazi Pendant: "I Was Wearing Vampire Costume"

And what's that on the wall behind him?

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A Republican Oklahoma state House candidate on Friday sought to downplay a photo on his Facebook page of him wearing a swastika-adorned Iron Cross medallion around his neck, saying it was part of a Halloween costume a few years ago.

Rodney Hiebert, who is running against incumbent state Rep. Mike Sanders in Tuesday's GOP primary, told The Associated Press that he realizes some people find the swastika offensive, but he offered no apology. He noted the symbol was used as the emblem for the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Division in the 1920s and 1930s, and by some Native American tribes.

Hiebert, of Taloga, said the photo was taken at a friend's Halloween party about four years ago and that the pendant belonged to his friend.

"I was just going to be a vampire. I had just got off work, and my friend said, 'Here, put this on and we'll just pass you off as a vampire and go.' I didn't really give no thought about it. I still don't really," the 42-year-old Hiebert said.

Hiebert, who says he would serve only one term if elected, said he is not a racist and that he has friends from various ethnicities and countries. He said he doesn't think public schools should be allowed to teach Spanish as a foreign language, and that they should place greater emphasis on teaching about Native American culture.

"Their heritage and traditions are going the way of the Dodo, while we're teaching our kids a foreign language to accept or be conditioned for when the United States is not primarily an English speaking nation anymore," Hiebert said.

He said he also would like to require businesses to post signage in English.

Read more at Syracuse.com.

EPIC FAIL: NBC Editor Asks "Is Burger King Bacon Sundae 'Anti-Semitic'?"

First of all, BurgerKing, except for specially designated franchise operations in Israel, is not under kosher supervision and does not follow kosher rules. So they can serve any food they want to.

Secondly, adding bacon to any food product does not make that food "Anti-Semitic" any more than it can be "Anti-Muslim" or "Anti-Vegetarian." It's not kosher, but then nobody ever said that it was.

Finally, Jews who eat at non-kosher restaurants and think it's OK as long as they avoid pork products, are only fooling themselves. If only now they are all offended by a "bacon sundae" they are free to stop eating at Burger King.

10's of 1000's Fill Mets Stadium to Protest the Internet: Live Photo Feed on the Internet!

Anti-Internet Protest photos on the Internet!

Queens, NY - More than 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men plan are packed at this hour at Citi Field for a gathering on the dangers of the Internet, and organizers have also rented the nearby Arthur Ashe Stadium for the overflow crowd.

“It’s going to be inspiration and education about using technology responsibly in accordance with Jewish values,” said Eytan Kobre, a lawyer who is the spokesman for the event’s organizers.

Kobre said the rally’s purpose is not to ban the Internet but to learn how to harness it.

“There is a very significant downside to the Internet,” he said. “It does pose a challenge to us in various aspects of our lives.”

He cited online pornography and gambling as well as the risk of social media undermining “our ability to pray uninterruptedly, to focus and to concentrate.”

VOSIZNEIAS.COM will be updated with new photos as we get them.
All photos copyright to VIN News. anyone stealing photos without proper credit to VosIzNeias.com will result in legal action

What, no webcast?

No women either.