Tim Blair

I was interested to see the senile Stalinist and former British Labour Party Leader Michael Foot admitting to having been David Low's editor during World War II - Low published cartoons justifying Stalin's mass murder of Polish officers at Katyn and slandering as treacherous the Poliah government-in-Exile in London when it dared complain about the fact. You learn something new about these pieces of human excreta every day.

Ariel Sharon is one of the greatest men of the 20th Century.

He has put his whole life on the line in the service of his country since before its inception.

Sharon's Palestinian foes loudly and enthusiastically slaughter children as their central, most often used, and most effective tactic.

Sharons response to this barbaric slaughter of innocents is everywhere encumbered by measures designed to safeguard the lives of Isreali and Palestinian innocents.

And this morally sick cartoonist chooses to lampoon WHO as a destroyer of innocents ? And the cartoon won a prize ?

Some of you goyim make me sick. No wonder G-D turns his face from you.

Lefty bloggers are one thing. But when Reason Magazine endorses the notion that Perle and Frum are like "Black Metal" Nazis, I begin to wonder "what's left."

Sharon is an opportunist, always has been. He started out in Mapai, but when it was made clear to him that he had no political future there he started kissing up to Menachem Begin. He stood for the Knesset on the vaguely leftist platform of Shlomtzion (remember that?), then when it got 2 seats, and Begin offered him a cabinet position, he jumped in and turned into a right-wing firebreather. Until it fell to him to evacuate Yamit, and he showed his true colours.

He bought a flat in the Old City to make him popular with the right, but never actually stays there. He insisted on visiting the site of the Temple when he was gearing up for an election, but once in office he did nothing to stop the Arab construction there, and he still won't allow other Jews to pray there. When it paid him to do so, he said "grab the hilltops", but when the wind changed he had no compunction about demolishing a synagogue for not having a building permit, while doing nothing about the thousands of equally permitless Arab buildings in the same area, not a single one of which has been touched; he will certainly never think of demolishing a mosque for not having a building permit.

'Arik', save your hero worship for someone more worthy.

Arik: while your religious closing and pro-Sharon cant are a bit too thick and chewy for me, your basic point stands proud: how is it that self-described child murderers get good press while a man who risks the lives of his countrymen to avoid the death of innocent enemy civilians is ridiculed and subjected to blood libel?

Are newsroom water coolers contaminated with LSD?

"Some of you goyim make me sick. No wonder G-D turns his face from you."

Hey, Arik? Some of us are goyim here. In fact I think most of us just don't happen to be Jews. If we make you ill, I suggest you surf elsewhere. You want to qualify your remarks a little more, or do I treat you like I treated this weirdo? (I banned his IP from my entire domain through .htaccess. I also run this one. See, I don't like bigots of any sort. Just a heads up.)

"Some of you goyim make me sick. No wonder G-D turns his face from you."

Arik,

Some of us Goyim are proud friends of Israel and the Jewish people. Comments like that are offensive.

I loved this part in one of the comments:

"Report all the facts, let us get outraged. If you report the facts with outrage, we'll assume you're peddling an agenda."

YES!! Just give me the friking news .. who, what, where, and when. Don't tell me too much why unless it's just background and NOT interpretation.

BTW:
That is a sickening cartoon. I bet the folks who are applauding that one would never dare print something similar showing 'protected groups' (any group other than Jews, Christians, or the traditional West). There are certain groups that are 'off limits' and are never depicted as some (not all, some) of them are.

Heck, you can't even speak the truth about what is happening within some of these groups. Examples of this are the rapes 'by a certain group' that have happened in both Australia and France. Call this group anything but what it is, if you have the guts to even mention it at all.

Arik's remark was offensive to me as well, and I am Jewish.

"Some of you goyim make me sick. No wonder G-D turns his face from you."

Seems to me I've heard something like that before. Are goyim anything like Crusaders?

"...to safeguard the lives of Isreali and Palestinian innocents."

I'm suspicious of anyone who can't spell Israeli correctly.

Edpi: "goyim" is the plural of "goy," which is a Hebrew word meaning Gentile, or non-Jew.

Note: the Arik post was obviously a troll - emailing back would only lead to Sharon's address.....nice work Trollhole

By the way, "Arik's" IP resolves to someplace in Kansas. Not that that means anything one way or another. The freako who ranted on my site seemed to come from Oakland, California.

"Edpi: "goyim" is the plural of "goy," which is a Hebrew word meaning Gentile, or non-Jew."

Thank you, Andrea, but I knew that. Perhaps I should have included a smiley or some such in my original remark.

My intent was to point out the similarity between the claim that G-D turn his face from goyim and the claims made by various Islamists. Seems we goyim/infidels/Crusaders just can't catch a break from the deities.

Andrea,
(a) I apologise for the goyim crack. I get irrational when I see cartoons of Jews eating babies like matzoh balls. BTW, this apology is not just to Andrea, it is to all.

(b) I qualify - the goyim who make me sick are the ones who laugh at that cartoon and award it prizes.

I think you were a little hard on Arik. He was worked up and flew off the handle.

More proof that "re-education" is only for us groundlings. The left-wing anointed can do whatever they feel like.

When you hold leftist beliefs, you may automatically congratulate yourself for being more perceptive than the common run.

When you are more perceptive, you hold the moral high ground.

When you hold the moral high ground, everything you do is right.

Arik, you shouldn't have apologized to some of these overly sensitive people. Some goyim make me sick, and I'm a goyim.

Sharon possesses something most of these PC Internet intellectuals know very little about -- cojones. The restraint he has shown is remarkable, in light of what Israel has been subjected to. He should light them all up.

I'm not a fan of Sharon, but then again, neither are many Israelis. Given the excremental position he's in, I'm willing to cut him a lot of slack.

Re: Nauseating Goyim: No need to hang back, Arik, tell us how you really feel.

But seriously folks.... the Shoah, and the Goebellesque EuroFashionable anti-Semitism of the cartoon makes any momentary-lapse-into-bigotry understandable. As long as it is momentary.The gracious Apology afterwards shows that Arik's a Mensch, a Scholar and a Gentleman, and no Bigot.

Hope the next time I suffer from Foot-in-Mouth disease due to righteous indignation, that I have the wit to apologise as graciously.

wow, just threaten to ban people you dont agree with!

if racism is wrong (of course it is) then you shouldnt ban it, you should discuss why it is wrong

arik may have said more than he meant, it is better to discuss what about his comment was in error than to use the R word and threaten to destroy his speech

maybe im wrong about this. The appropriate way to deal with me then would be to discuss why i am wrong, not threaten to ban me.

banning opposition is the sign of a mind too weak to win the debate

Sharon is a great man, and a horrible man.

He's dealt with grave things head on, and that means getting dirty.

It is so easy to question him, and so hard to deal with things he has.

I don't give one flying flip who is Jewish and who is Arab or who is gollum/gylom (whatever the hell it was)

Race is such a stupid stupid way to think abou t people because it truly means nothing. IT doesnt mean heritage, it doesnt mean politics, it doesnt mean smartness or health.

Grade people on something more useful

-There, I explained why racism is wrong. That is much more effective than whining about how you ban everyone who says the wrong words. You arent some intellectual elite just becuase you can ban. You are just the operator of another hole in the wall blog, and your only strength is the strength of free discourse.

/rant over

andrea, if these posts bother you so much why don't you go back to your own site and get busy tracking people down.

I think you're very wrong to pick on Lefties.

They have a far clearer and definite plan for the planet.

They are very concerned about overpopulation.

They supported Stalin and his policies which rid us of tens of millions......

They supported Saddam continuing in power and he was well on his way....

They will not stand for intervention on Mugabe, Kim or any other terrorist....

Let them butcher in peace they always say.......

So it's in the interest of avoiding overpopulation as opposed to being the wankers we all think they are.

There is a place for Lefties in this world...I just haven't had time to dig it....

Dustin -- or is it Bill Gates? Anyway:

Why racism is wrong has already been discussed. Those of us with working brain cells have already got it. If you're still unclear on the concept, it isn't our fault.

McGehee:
Maybe so - but maybe you've just accepted the leftist interpretation of racism. Remember, control the definitions and you control the argument.

For instance, I made a bigoted comment about goyim. Is that racist, as well as bigoted ? Does 'goyim' imply any particular race ?

Maybe goyim is a religious term. If you are a goy do I know your race ? If you are born a Jew can you become a goy ?

Next time you are told that bigoted comments about Muslims are 'racist', think: If a person is a Muslim does that mean I know what race he is ?
If not, then how can a race-neutral term be 'racist' ?

This may be nit-picking, but who controls the language controls your thoughts.

Hahaha, didnt think anyone would catch that

I'm not trying to be demeaning, though i understand if you take offense

Clearly the point of a blog is to communicate, and if people are racist they clearly dont understand the problem

and if the blog is pointing out that problem but not explaining what the problem is, but rather just kicking and banning like pistol pete, then the racist doesnt get any better, he doesnt see the error of his ways, he may learn to conform, but the hate is still there

what is the point of that? especially when racism is so easily defeated through open discussion?

read some john stuart mill. outlawing speech, outlawing anything just becuase it may be abused, doesnt do the job.

I didnt see any discussion of why racism was wrong, perhaps i missed it. It certainly wasnt the reaction here, though it would have been very easy, it is less fun from the power-of-the-silly-mod point of view

i dont care for childish kicking the "troll" he wasnt a troll, he was sincere, but went too far. What is the point of talking about anything if we skip the really important topics?

I do realize that I am a bit more cultured than some of you, and that this isn't easily understood. Relax, you can easily get to my point of enlightenment by reading a little Mill.

Who knows? You may start your own super giant software company and become a billionare like me!

I'm a fifth generation Kansan, and I am fucking floored that there is a Jew in the state. I originally come from a bitty town (a little bit outside of Emporia) and had no idea what a Jew was until I was fourteen. Arik, if you aren't in Johnson , or perhaps Sedgwick county, I will just die from the shock. But hey, I like Kansas, and I think the people are just great, even if living in Kansas does suck.

Don't sweat the goyim! Some of us can barbeque like nobody's fucking business, so it's worth getting to know us.

"I do realize that I am a bit more cultured than some of you, and that this isn't easily understood. Relax, you can easily get to my point of enlightenment by reading a little Mill"

I understand this to be some sort of satire, or jokariffic light-hearted banter. Probably. Fix me a martini, biatch!

Dylan,
There probably aren't that many Jews in Kansas. I dunno. I signed off 'in Kansas' before cause Andrea don't go very far west on her vacations. She saw my server in KC, so she tells everyone 'Ariks server is somewhere in Kansas'.

My head office is in KC, but I spend most of my time overseas - in the Anglosphere, so I don't hafta speak any 'foriegn' lingo.

I was kind of kidding, Arik. I didn't know any Jews back then, because I only knew fifty people in a small town anyway. But I was not imbued with any anti-semitic predjudices in Kansas, and no one I know held any. It was sort of a faux jokey "shock" that there was a Jew in the state of Kansas. Kind of like finding a Swede in Mexico City, ha ha, weird. That being said, I would tone down the Andrea is this-n-that if I were you, because spleenville is her world, and we're just playing in it. Plus, she's cool.

Also, let's not start comparing degrees of worldliness around here. We're all friends. (I'm just not really sure what you were hinting at with the "I spend most of my time overseas - in the Anglosphere, so I don't hafta speak any 'foriegn' lingo" bit.) It's the worst kind of pissing contest, outside of actual pissing contests.

We all know that Kansas City isn't in the state of Kansas, it's in Missouri.

Apropos goy.
Current American dictionaries say that goy is offensive, and a disparaging term for non-Jews.

Similarly, Kike is offensive slang, and a disparaging term for a Jew.

Gee, guys, I was doing this little thing called "sleeping" -- I tend to do that between the hours of eleven pm and four am EST on weeknights, crazy I know -- so I didn't get to Arik's gracious apology before now. Some of you fellows should lighten up with the "Ew, you're being PC" bullshit. I've already had trouble with one weirdo on my site. (Yes, mike, I do regulate comments on my own site. because of shenanigans like that.) This site is often visited by trolls who try to foment trouble of various sorts. I have no way of knowing whether someone who uses a fake name and email address is legit or not (or even if he was the same "arik" who posts comments here -- we've had some clever fellows using other people's names or handles here, and people don't always log on with the same IP).

I'll end this with: if you don't like the way this site is run, there are so many other blogs out there. I'm sure you'll find one that lets you use it like a public toilet.

1. goy is not inherently offensive, although in ashkenazi culture it does have a slightly patronizing connotation.

2. sharon hasn't done anything worse than rabin, begin, mcarthur, eisenhower, or any other military/political leader who has to direct his country or army in a bloody conflict. the hatred of him is the result of psychotic fixation on the israeli and european extreme left. what the exact source of it is, i don't know, but i think his longstanding (and now, apparently, abandoned) support for the settlements was a major factor. obviously, sabra and shatilla plays into that too, but it requires some fairly extensive intellectual acrobatics to hang that on him exclusively, especially considering the copious palestinian atrocities during the lebanon war.

Oh please, with the I'm-offended. How very prissy can you be. You can't wait to show your little cut and point a trembling finger at the guilty one. The thin skin, always bleeding, bottom feeding for slights. How pathetic.

"sabra and Shatilla plays into that too".
Just so there's no doubt about my politics, I think the Palestinians should get back all pre-1967 land, and in the present situation I tend to blame the Israeli government a little more than the Palestinian authority, simply on the basis of who has the most power, resoucres, has more responsiblitiy.
So, I'm obviously in the minority here. No problem, I think you're wrong, you think I'm wrong.
But, while we differ on our points of view, I think there has to be some sort of common points of view if only by virtue of us being humans.
To simply dismiss Sabra and Shatilla so casually, alluding to it as an afterthought is simply breathtaking in its callousness. If you find it hard to hang it on Sharon, please don't complain about Nazi murders of Jews in Eastern Europe, as it was almost invariably carried out in the same manner. The Nazis rarely murdered when they were in the field, instead stepped aside and let the native villagers do it. Does that excuse them because they didn't pull the trigger themselves? Of course not. Yet Sharon as we're reminded by old georgie boy is a "man of peace".

What's the difference? It's like this:

'goy' - disparaging term for non-Jews, which means pretty much everyone, i.e., a "wide spray-pattern", like being shot at with a shot-gun full of rock salt from about a 1000 yard away, i.e. "I think I felt something but I'm really not sure. Someone is shooting, but I'm not really sure who or what they're shooting at."

'kike' - disparaging term for Jews, which means pretty much only Jews, i.e., a "narrow, practically non-existent spray-pattern, like being shot at with a rifle at fairly close range, i.e., "that person is shooting at me, and I have been hit, no question."

I guess what I'm saying is that it's NOT 'all relative', and that only an absolute PC pansy would get his or her panties in a bunch because someone uses an indirect insult in the midst of an angry but otherwise intelligent rant.

"bottom feeding for slights" Too true!

There was a big debate on Aaron Haspel's blog about whether "goy/goyim" is offensive.

I don't have a strong opinion, but I think that the "not offensive" side had the better arguments. Someone invoked the American Heritage Dictionary, to which acdouglas responded, "First off, and most importantly, we do not permit English language dictionaries to define Yiddish words for us."

See now, Franky, that is a little offensive. You say israel is wrong because it's bigger. You completely ignore one side of the conflict. Israel has been repeatedly attacked. When you are attacked, you MUST advance your borders or eventually you will lose (remember Vietnam). You might be right that Israel should pull out (things have changed), but that would be by dumb luck, your reasoning is wrong.

The only thing that offends me is people whining about being offended. This is a blog, for crying out loud! Go sew a sweater or play lawn darts or some shit like that if you're gonna be offended...

It's the new fashion.

Really, there's only one man who's been involved in every failed peace agreement betweem Israel and the Palestinians. That man is Yasser Arafat. That says something, surely.

franky:
first, drawing a parallel between one of a long and lamentable series of tit-for-tat massacres between muslims and christians in a nasty civil war and the holocaust is morally and intellectually bankrupt in the extreme. second, your assertion that the nazis rarely murdered in the field is ludicrous. or haven't you heard of the einsatzgruppen?

I promise not to get my knickers in a knot, now that I have had the principle explained to me.

Applying snide, racist epithets is fine, so long as it's a blog, and so long as the target is BIG.

So anti-Basque bigotry is bad (hardly any Basques)
anti-Chinese bigotry good (25% of the planet's population)

Now you're getting it.

I think Andreas right.

Having considered it for a full day I guess this is Andrea's blog (not Tim's at all). And there are many other blogs out there, as she says.

Andrea is extremely keen to be offended. I would have to be thinking of that every time I posted.

So: Bye Bye - I will surf blogs not under Andreas control ...

For the record, the "artist's" evocation of Goya would suggest the headless body in the image to be an *Israeli* child... Saturn ate his *own* children, after all. The blood libel connotations, while obvious to us now, may not have been as apparent to him.

Peggy Sue, the relative offensiveness of an epithet has more to do with categories than numbers. An example: Gypsies in Spain have a word for everyone who is not a gypsy: "payo". Like "goy" it is somewhat condescending, but not seriously offensive because it basically means "everybody else". If I were a gypsy and I called you a "payo" you would probably not be terribly offended. At the worst, it would mean "You're not part of my cool group". And yes, it does matter that that group, like the Jews, is a very small minority.

Gee, kelly colgan, why so easily offended? You need to develop a thicker skin.

"So: Bye Bye - I will surf blogs not under Andreas control ..."

Well, that didn't last long, did it?

And just for the record, it wasn't the term "goy" that was offensive, it was the sweeping generalization of "you goys" (italics mine, for emphasis), followed by the rest of the diatribe. And it has nothing to do with the thin skin of us goys on the receiving end so much as the realization that a social law has been broken; you could call it "don't piss on your friends because you are mad at someone else." But then maybe some of you regularly piss on your friends, what do I know -- different strokes.

Andrea's mask has really fallen hasn't it ?

She is:

Precious - Oh dear, someone called you a goy ! (Hey Andrea look in the mirror - you ARE a goy)

Fascist - I will totally ban Arik for using the word Goyim, which so badly offends me, the gentle Andrea

Stupid - Andrea, Kansas City is in Missouri. Did you fail grade school geography ?

Can't tell the time - Cleverly rebutting Ariks 'Bye Bye' post, Andrea links to a post SEVERAL HOURS PRIOR to the bye bye post. How do you get to work in the morning Andrea ?

A fibber - Changes Ariks quote from 'SOME of you goyim' to 'you goys', to ensure she can be suitably offended.

Andrea, you a precious, stupid, PC nazi. Go run some blogs in the lefty blog-o-sphere. Leave the right-wingers alone.

You can't read very well, can you, assbucket? Let me count the ways you are stupid as a shit brick:

"Oh dear, someone called you a goy ! (Hey Andrea look in the mirror - you ARE a goy)"

Uh, yeah, pricktard, that's what I meant when I said "some of us here are goyim." Reading comprehension failure number one.

Here's failure number two, displayed in this blather: "Fascist - I will totally ban Arik for using the word Goyim, which so badly offends me, the gentle Andrea"

Blardee-blar-blar-blar. If you read what I said (maybe you should have someone read to you; have them read slow, so you'll understand), you will see that I said no such thing. I'm not even the one who brought up the subject of the word "goy" being an (occasionally) insulting term -- that was another commenter. You know, I don't think you're really Jewish -- all the Jews I've known have been smart enough to at least see lightning, hear thunder and feel warm to the touch.

Oh, and here is Reading Comp failure number three: "Stupid - Andrea, Kansas City is in Missouri. Did you fail grade school geography ?"

No, but I'll bet you did. I said Arik's IP resolved to somewhere in Kansas. Kansas is a state. I didn't say anything about Kansas City -- again, that was someone else. See all the names at the bottom of comments? Those are the names of the people who made the one just above. Have someone who has an IQ higher than the Kelvin freezing point explain it to you.

And number four -- really, four in one comment, that's pathetic -- "A fibber - Changes Ariks quote from 'SOME of you goyim' to 'you goys', to ensure she can be suitably offended."

Um, sweetie, have nursie explain "paraphrase" to you. If it's too difficult then just have her spank you the way you obviously love to be spanked.

This beauty deserves to stand on its own: "Andrea, you a precious, stupid, PC nazi. Go run some blogs in the lefty blog-o-sphere. Leave the right-wingers alone."

ROTFLMAO. That's a change from all the people calling me a rightwing psychotic cunt. My, it's such fun provoking the internet 'tards, especially the ones blue-balled with frustration that Instapundit doesn't have comments.

PS: my condolences for your childhood uh, loss.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming... Remember! Keep it sensitive! Don't make Earth Mother sad.