The Founding Fathers Versus the Tea Party
By RON CHERNOW
Published: September 23, 2010
“LIKE many popular insurgencies in American history, the Tea Party movement has attempted to enlist the founding fathers as fervent adherents to its cause. “
“Many Tea Party candidates and activists have tried to seize the moral high ground by explicitly identifying with the founders. Sharron Angle, who is mounting a spirited run against Harry Reid for a Senate seat from Nevada with Tea Party support, bristled at Mr. Reid’s contention that she is overly conservative. “I’m sure that they probably said that about Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and Benjamin Franklin,” she protested. “And, truly, when you look at the Constitution and our founding fathers and their writings ... you might draw those conclusions: That they were conservative. They were fiscally conservative and socially conservative.”
The Tea Party movement has further sought to spruce up its historical bona fides by laying claim to the United States Constitution. Many Tea Party members subscribe to a literal reading of the national charter as a way of bolstering their opposition to deficit spending, bank bailouts and President Obama’s health care plan. A Tea Party manifesto, called the Contract From America, even contains a rigid provision stipulating that all legislation passed by Congress should specify the precise clause in the Constitution giving Congress the power to pass such a law — an idea touted Thursday by the House Republican leadership. “
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24chernow.html?th&emc=th
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/
“(CNN) – Sarah Palin announced the launch of a new website Thursday, aimed at defeating twenty incumbent Democrats who voted for President Obama's health care bill and who are running in districts that swung Republican during the 2008 presidential election.
In the announcement on her Facebook page, entitled "Lies, Damned Lies – Obamacare 6 Months Later," the former GOP vice presidential nominee resurrects her claims that "rationing 'death panels'" are included in the health care bill and promotes the new site, which endorses candidates who support the bill's repeal. “
Cassi Creek
The contention by the GOP and its religious and ant-intellectual arms that the founding fathers were “conservatives is nonsense. Only someone who knows nothing of history could believe that the founders would agree with the “conservatism” offered by religious demagogues and the current GOP. The founders, men who sought only to do away with the colonial status of the American colonies were as far to the political left then as was Trotsky. Our founders challenged the very concept of who governed at the time. They overthrew the concept of divine right rulers and rule by royal decree as well as rule by colonial powers. Nothing conservative about that, then or today. They were ready to die in the effort to do away with those conditions. Some of them did. They raised an armed revolution as surely as did Lenin and friends. At the time they did it, they were considered rabidly secularist and politically off the scale to the left.
To hear the GOP try to pair them with incipient theocracy, with plutocracy, and to hear the use of “states’ rights” to justify racism and xenophobia, is to know that the Tea Party mobsters, the GOP, and the anti-intellectuals slept through any exposure to the Constitution and American history they might have had in schools that failed to teach them anything of the nation’s past. Is it any wonder these are the people who would do away with the Department of Education and favor home schooling?
The habitual half-termer, Sarah Palin, has aptly described her demagoguery on social networking sites once more. “Lies, Damned Lies…” is exactly what issues from the ghost-written comments posted under Palin’s name. The lie about death panels is resurrected by her ghost writers in an effort to raise support for the GOP’s intended plan to repeal Health Care Reform. Given Palin’s history of ethics violations in office, her encouragement of the birther and other GOP-funded lie campaigns directed toward Obama, and her apparent lack of acquaintance with any shred of truth about her use of her family as campaign props, I expect to see these words plaguing her as the real media demands documentation from her as to the location of “death panels” in the health care reform law.
I find it disturbing that so many Americans are willing to let the lies spread by Palin linger as if they were true. Actually, any death panels that do or will exist will be those created by the GOP and insurance companies. The GOP health care plan is simply “be rich or die quickly!” That’s easy to see but apparently we’ve dumbed our population down to the point that prevents any genuine analytical skills, any reading comprehension. That anti-intellectual bias will be the death of millions if the GOP and the TPmobsters have their way.
Palin’s too dumbed down, herself, to recognize that without her celebrity she and her family values surpises would be subject to selection based upon cash value and job-related benefits. Those death panels already exist and they do tend to come down harder on children with pre-existing conditions and adults who have genetic pre-disposition to specific diseases. Palin keeps aiming at her own feet and at her children and grandchildren. Only the immense pool of idiots willing to pay to hear her parrot ghost-written speeches and to buy her ghost-written books keep them off the unemployment lines. The job market for high-school dropout baby-mamas is not that good unless the GOP machine wants to convince the “real America” that “abstinence only” education really does work despite the increasing number of knocked-up teens out there. They could pull in a few girls who haven’t been prepped and pimped by national campaigns; but somehow I don’t see the Tea Party or the religious fanatics getting excited about the “redemption” of a 16 year old with a darker complexion.
Lies, Damned Lies…. The answer is whenever her mouth is moving..
Friday, September 24, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
23 September 2010 To vote for theocracy, repression, and deeper recession txt 1994
GOP leaders pledge to cut government, taxes
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 23, 2010 11:19 a.m. EDT
Some provisions in the GOP document match positions of the conservative Tea Party movement that has helped defeat mainstream Republican candidates in several primary elections this year. For example, the document calls for a federal hiring freeze on nonsecurity employees and requiring all legislation to include a clause showing that it is authorized under the Constitution.
Other items would cancel unspent funding authorized by the economic stimulus bill, roll back spending to levels before the stimulus bill and earlier federal bailout legislation and repeal the health care reform bill passed in March.
The document also calls for permanently prohibiting taxpayer funding for abortion.
Several Republican sources said there was no intention to directly address social issues because the electorate is so heavily focused on jobs and spending.
Republican leaders settled on a line that states: "We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values."
Republican 'Pledge to America': spending caps, tax cuts
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42566.html#ixzz10N8kTRe8
“”To cut spending, Republicans say they are committed to canceling remaining expenditures from the 2009 stimulus law, return domestic appropriations to 2008 levels, impose "hard" budget caps on discretionary spending accounts, reduce spending for congressional operations, have weekly floor votes on winners of the "YouCut" program that allows citizens to vote online for programs that should be slashed, end the Troubled Asset Relief Program, end government control of the secondary home-mortgage lending giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, freeze federal hiring for non-security jobs, sunset programs after a certain number of years, and use more straightforward budgeting for entitlement programs.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42566.html#ixzz10N8T3yPH
Straight from the horse’s ass, Eric Cantor and his apologists for the ultra-wealthy bring you”
http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/
“YouCut – a first-of-its-kind project - is designed to defeat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress. It allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. Each week, we will take the winning item and offer it to the full House for an up-or-down vote, so that you can see where your representative stands on your priorities. Vote on this page today for your priorities and together we can begin to change Washington's culture of spending into a culture of savings.”
Ezra Klein writes in the Washington Post today.
“Their policy agenda is detailed and specific -- a decision they will almost certainly come to regret. Because when you get past the adjectives and soaring language, the talk of inalienable rights and constitutional guarantees, you're left with a set of hard promises that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars, take health-care insurance away from tens of millions of people, create a level of policy uncertainty businesses have never previously known, and suck demand out of an economy that's already got too little of it. “
This “pledge”, like 1994’s contract on America is an attempt to gut and discard every bit of social and economic safety-net legislation passed since the FDR administration. It is an attempt to incorporate all the changes wanted by the Tea Party, the fiscally conservative GOP, and the evangelicals/Christian fundamentalists. It will leave millions of citizens with no access to health care, no income, no housing, and no food. It will result in repeated demands for privatizing every aspect of America. Someone on the GOP/TP/Jesus side will find a way to charge to use the national forests until they are logged off by campaign contributors. Someone will sell vast stretches of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system to developers who will erect toll booths and do no maintenance. Our standing army will be downsized in favor of using the quasi-militia groups that run around on weekends pretending to be soldiers.
As for assuring personal liberties, they will ignore such things and force their way into people’s homes and bedrooms, waving their bibles and demanding that everyone behave and pray as they believe they are supposed to behave and pray. The party that once ran Teddy Roosevelt, a true progressive, will now join politics with creation fairy tales and bigotry to become the party of repression.
Most frightening, perhaps, is the proposal that Eric Cantor unveiled. I shudder at the thought of allowing uninformed voters to “vote” against funding bits or fiscal legislation. Looking at the proposal, it would take me days of intensive study to know how best to vote on fiscal bills. That is, after all, what we taxpayers pay Congress to do rather than pal around with lobbyists on golf courses, fact-finding cruises, etc. Now the GOP intends to palm this job off to singularly uninformed voters whose only qualification is that they have access to a computer and ISP or cell phone account. I don’t want to see our barely functional republic become something governed and controlled by popular opinion of the moment; directed by propagandists running ads on television or by religious demagogues eager to establish a theocracy.
It’s scary out there when the idiots and asylum inmates gain power. Our revolution largely escaped a reign of terror. We may have only delayed it.
Words for art-history: pylon, hypostyle,
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 23, 2010 11:19 a.m. EDT
Some provisions in the GOP document match positions of the conservative Tea Party movement that has helped defeat mainstream Republican candidates in several primary elections this year. For example, the document calls for a federal hiring freeze on nonsecurity employees and requiring all legislation to include a clause showing that it is authorized under the Constitution.
Other items would cancel unspent funding authorized by the economic stimulus bill, roll back spending to levels before the stimulus bill and earlier federal bailout legislation and repeal the health care reform bill passed in March.
The document also calls for permanently prohibiting taxpayer funding for abortion.
Several Republican sources said there was no intention to directly address social issues because the electorate is so heavily focused on jobs and spending.
Republican leaders settled on a line that states: "We pledge to honor families, traditional marriage, life, and the private and faith-based organizations that form the core of our American values."
Republican 'Pledge to America': spending caps, tax cuts
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42566.html#ixzz10N8kTRe8
“”To cut spending, Republicans say they are committed to canceling remaining expenditures from the 2009 stimulus law, return domestic appropriations to 2008 levels, impose "hard" budget caps on discretionary spending accounts, reduce spending for congressional operations, have weekly floor votes on winners of the "YouCut" program that allows citizens to vote online for programs that should be slashed, end the Troubled Asset Relief Program, end government control of the secondary home-mortgage lending giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, freeze federal hiring for non-security jobs, sunset programs after a certain number of years, and use more straightforward budgeting for entitlement programs.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42566.html#ixzz10N8T3yPH
Straight from the horse’s ass, Eric Cantor and his apologists for the ultra-wealthy bring you”
http://republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut/
“YouCut – a first-of-its-kind project - is designed to defeat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress. It allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. Each week, we will take the winning item and offer it to the full House for an up-or-down vote, so that you can see where your representative stands on your priorities. Vote on this page today for your priorities and together we can begin to change Washington's culture of spending into a culture of savings.”
Ezra Klein writes in the Washington Post today.
“Their policy agenda is detailed and specific -- a decision they will almost certainly come to regret. Because when you get past the adjectives and soaring language, the talk of inalienable rights and constitutional guarantees, you're left with a set of hard promises that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars, take health-care insurance away from tens of millions of people, create a level of policy uncertainty businesses have never previously known, and suck demand out of an economy that's already got too little of it. “
This “pledge”, like 1994’s contract on America is an attempt to gut and discard every bit of social and economic safety-net legislation passed since the FDR administration. It is an attempt to incorporate all the changes wanted by the Tea Party, the fiscally conservative GOP, and the evangelicals/Christian fundamentalists. It will leave millions of citizens with no access to health care, no income, no housing, and no food. It will result in repeated demands for privatizing every aspect of America. Someone on the GOP/TP/Jesus side will find a way to charge to use the national forests until they are logged off by campaign contributors. Someone will sell vast stretches of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway system to developers who will erect toll booths and do no maintenance. Our standing army will be downsized in favor of using the quasi-militia groups that run around on weekends pretending to be soldiers.
As for assuring personal liberties, they will ignore such things and force their way into people’s homes and bedrooms, waving their bibles and demanding that everyone behave and pray as they believe they are supposed to behave and pray. The party that once ran Teddy Roosevelt, a true progressive, will now join politics with creation fairy tales and bigotry to become the party of repression.
Most frightening, perhaps, is the proposal that Eric Cantor unveiled. I shudder at the thought of allowing uninformed voters to “vote” against funding bits or fiscal legislation. Looking at the proposal, it would take me days of intensive study to know how best to vote on fiscal bills. That is, after all, what we taxpayers pay Congress to do rather than pal around with lobbyists on golf courses, fact-finding cruises, etc. Now the GOP intends to palm this job off to singularly uninformed voters whose only qualification is that they have access to a computer and ISP or cell phone account. I don’t want to see our barely functional republic become something governed and controlled by popular opinion of the moment; directed by propagandists running ads on television or by religious demagogues eager to establish a theocracy.
It’s scary out there when the idiots and asylum inmates gain power. Our revolution largely escaped a reign of terror. We may have only delayed it.
Words for art-history: pylon, hypostyle,
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
22 September 2010 Still feels like summer to me.
The morning hike with Mike left me dripping sweat and in need of another shower. I need to go into town to take care of some house-keeping paperwork/permit items. 40 mile round trip with at least an hour of wait time built in. With two different class schedules and other appointments and obligations it is getting complicated for us both to schedule the time.
Another Palin clone decides to evade media scrutiny and speak only via limited access to pre-approved questions. How brave and honest of her!
“Christine O'Donnell: I'm not doing any more national TV interviews
By Felicia Sonmez in today’s Washington Post.”
If O’Donnel won’t visit the press, I strongly suspect that the press will become far more present than she can currently imagine. I have to wonder if she will buckle under pressure like Palin did when her series of lies, half-truths and her lack of any real competency became grist for the media. She still remains unaware that she and she alone, drew all the attention to herself and her stage-prop family. Will O’Donnel’s hair fall out as did Palin’s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJCcmDLajiU describes the new state of feminism as the Palin campaign and clones wish to define it. Welcome to the downward spiral that marks the loss of intelligence among the Tea party mobsters and their chosen idiots in waiting.
Please note the plan to exclude any but tame pseudo-media in the Fox-driven propaganda program. Will the Tea Party evangelists try to create their position as first or second estate?
At 1500 it is 89.5 °F poolside. The temperatures are running about 10-12 degrees above average. We should be cooling down by now. This may well be the hottest summer on record here. The night time temperatures are not dropping low enough to cool the house down very much. I’m sure I will be wishing for warmer days when the stove needs to be fed and wood needs to be carried in. But I’ve always liked the cooling down that autumn brings and I’m looking forward to it today.
The trees are likely to turn brown rather than yellow or red this fall. Two of our hemlocks are infested with the algids that are slowly destroying the Appalachian hemlock forests.
Hemlocks! Thought springs to mind of a distant teacher clapping her hands in rhythm to Longfellow’s “Hiawatha.” This is the forest, primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks…
More hemlock associations: Clint Eastwood as Jonathon Hemlock, assassin in “The Eiger Sanction.” Excellent climbing sequences and wonderful views of and from the Eiger.
George Kennedy – “North Face?”
Eastwood – “Of course.” Flat affect, lay it on the line from minute one. “Nordwand” is German for North wall. “Mordwand” translates as murder wall. A joke made by the early climbers who faced the Eiger with hemp ropes, wet woolen clothing, and the certain knowledge that the summit was less likely than failure.
Mordwand, of course, appropriate for a climb that involves an assassination on the mountain. Interesting plot for a movie, nice adaptation of the book, and like all Eastwood’s movies, a very interesting sound track.
One of very few movies that I can watch with interest more than once. So much for letting my mind run unfettered. I suppose I should direct it toward some sort of research paper for history 3940. But truthfully, I don’t want to spend the time on an academic paper. I’ll take the exams as an internal check and see how I feel in cooler weather.
Another Palin clone decides to evade media scrutiny and speak only via limited access to pre-approved questions. How brave and honest of her!
“Christine O'Donnell: I'm not doing any more national TV interviews
By Felicia Sonmez in today’s Washington Post.”
If O’Donnel won’t visit the press, I strongly suspect that the press will become far more present than she can currently imagine. I have to wonder if she will buckle under pressure like Palin did when her series of lies, half-truths and her lack of any real competency became grist for the media. She still remains unaware that she and she alone, drew all the attention to herself and her stage-prop family. Will O’Donnel’s hair fall out as did Palin’s?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJCcmDLajiU describes the new state of feminism as the Palin campaign and clones wish to define it. Welcome to the downward spiral that marks the loss of intelligence among the Tea party mobsters and their chosen idiots in waiting.
Please note the plan to exclude any but tame pseudo-media in the Fox-driven propaganda program. Will the Tea Party evangelists try to create their position as first or second estate?
At 1500 it is 89.5 °F poolside. The temperatures are running about 10-12 degrees above average. We should be cooling down by now. This may well be the hottest summer on record here. The night time temperatures are not dropping low enough to cool the house down very much. I’m sure I will be wishing for warmer days when the stove needs to be fed and wood needs to be carried in. But I’ve always liked the cooling down that autumn brings and I’m looking forward to it today.
The trees are likely to turn brown rather than yellow or red this fall. Two of our hemlocks are infested with the algids that are slowly destroying the Appalachian hemlock forests.
Hemlocks! Thought springs to mind of a distant teacher clapping her hands in rhythm to Longfellow’s “Hiawatha.” This is the forest, primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks…
More hemlock associations: Clint Eastwood as Jonathon Hemlock, assassin in “The Eiger Sanction.” Excellent climbing sequences and wonderful views of and from the Eiger.
George Kennedy – “North Face?”
Eastwood – “Of course.” Flat affect, lay it on the line from minute one. “Nordwand” is German for North wall. “Mordwand” translates as murder wall. A joke made by the early climbers who faced the Eiger with hemp ropes, wet woolen clothing, and the certain knowledge that the summit was less likely than failure.
Mordwand, of course, appropriate for a climb that involves an assassination on the mountain. Interesting plot for a movie, nice adaptation of the book, and like all Eastwood’s movies, a very interesting sound track.
One of very few movies that I can watch with interest more than once. So much for letting my mind run unfettered. I suppose I should direct it toward some sort of research paper for history 3940. But truthfully, I don’t want to spend the time on an academic paper. I’ll take the exams as an internal check and see how I feel in cooler weather.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
21 September 2010 Watching the season change
21 September 2010 Watching the season change
Today the autumnal equinox occurs. There’s really nothing to observe unless you are an astronomer, nothing to see that denotes the event for most of us. If one tracks these things the periods of daylight and darkness today will be equal. The planet is positioned relative to the sun so that both northern and southern hemispheres are equally inclined to the sun. When the sun rose this morning it was still summer. Tomorrow morning it will be autumn.
In many ways autumn is my favorite season. There is, of course, the beauty of the forests as trees shut down for the winter ahead and shed their leaves. There is the end to one set of allergens, to mosquitoes, ticks, and other bugs of spring and summer. The camping areas and national parks/forests are once more visited mostly by adults only. The temperatures moderate, cooler days, cooler nights, and in much of the nation we can forget about severe storms for a few months. Add to this, the fact that I met Gloria in the autumn and the season always looks good.
It was a short, rough night last night. Sleep was broken and I did not want to roll out this morning. Still, once up, it was worth it.
I was late in leaving this morning by about ½ hour if I wanted to audit the black history class. I spent about an hour in the parking lot dance and wound up finally finding a place about ¼ mile uphill from my classroom with ten minutes to get to class. Pounding downhill was hard on my knees but I made it to class just in time.
The class was enjoyable today, primarily dealing with the 1812 War and the Mexican-American war. Dr. Collins understands logistics and how they affect the outcome of campaigns. He’s presenting an excellent picture of Winfield Scott as a logistician. He’s also providing a different view of Thomas Jefferson than I’ve encountered before. Perhaps, had Washington prevailed and the US maintained standing army beyond 12,000 men and a navy larger than 7 single-gunned cutters we might have won the 1812 war and own Canada as well.
Unfortunately, Collins is not scheduled to teach next semester. There haven’t been many instructors I’ve felt eager to follow from class to class. Asa Barnes –hematology, Daniel Rosenstein – transfusion medicine, Wally Rogers – parasitology all make the list. Add Baxter Collins – military history.
We had braised short ribs in a stroganoff-like yogurt based sauce over egg noodles last night. Class days usually result in a hurried soup dinner or some other quick fix. Tonight we’ll finish off the left over’s that tasted so good last night.
There is an argument taking place on one of the forums I follow concerning what Israel must concede to gain peace. With few exceptions, the group is calling for Israel to withdraw behind the untenable pre-67 borders. They also want to bi-nationalize Jerusalem.
My position is that Israel should stop building any settlements but should cede no more territory and should not share Jerusalem. These positions, along with my belief that the collective Arab community will never willingly make peace with Israel has placed me far to the political and social right of nearly all the other correspondents. On the other forum that I have monitored, I’m farther to the left than they are willing to acknowledge. I oppose any acceptance by Israel of support from any end of days groups. Again, my stance places me on the outer edges of acceptance in both forums. I think that at those edges is where I should be. I can’t tolerate the new and improved left fawning over the PLO, Arafat, and now Hamas. Nor can I tolerate the people like Palin and Huckabee who want Israel only because their doomsday plans, tempered in really bad acid, calls for a mass conversion and a quick shuffle off the mortal coil.
I’ll stay where I am. I don’t hate either edge. But I know that Israel is not guilty of pogroms as accused by anti-Zionists, not perfect, not able to forego defensive policies. I don’t hate Arabs but I don’t trust them to ever act in the best interests of Israel. The would-be-Palestinians have had 62 years to forge a nation, the same amount of time Israel has had. Reality tells me that the “Arabs care more about destroying Israel than ever building their own state.
See what tomorrow brings. Falling leaves and feeling more rested would be an excellent start.
Today’s words: Ka Mastaba
Today the autumnal equinox occurs. There’s really nothing to observe unless you are an astronomer, nothing to see that denotes the event for most of us. If one tracks these things the periods of daylight and darkness today will be equal. The planet is positioned relative to the sun so that both northern and southern hemispheres are equally inclined to the sun. When the sun rose this morning it was still summer. Tomorrow morning it will be autumn.
In many ways autumn is my favorite season. There is, of course, the beauty of the forests as trees shut down for the winter ahead and shed their leaves. There is the end to one set of allergens, to mosquitoes, ticks, and other bugs of spring and summer. The camping areas and national parks/forests are once more visited mostly by adults only. The temperatures moderate, cooler days, cooler nights, and in much of the nation we can forget about severe storms for a few months. Add to this, the fact that I met Gloria in the autumn and the season always looks good.
It was a short, rough night last night. Sleep was broken and I did not want to roll out this morning. Still, once up, it was worth it.
I was late in leaving this morning by about ½ hour if I wanted to audit the black history class. I spent about an hour in the parking lot dance and wound up finally finding a place about ¼ mile uphill from my classroom with ten minutes to get to class. Pounding downhill was hard on my knees but I made it to class just in time.
The class was enjoyable today, primarily dealing with the 1812 War and the Mexican-American war. Dr. Collins understands logistics and how they affect the outcome of campaigns. He’s presenting an excellent picture of Winfield Scott as a logistician. He’s also providing a different view of Thomas Jefferson than I’ve encountered before. Perhaps, had Washington prevailed and the US maintained standing army beyond 12,000 men and a navy larger than 7 single-gunned cutters we might have won the 1812 war and own Canada as well.
Unfortunately, Collins is not scheduled to teach next semester. There haven’t been many instructors I’ve felt eager to follow from class to class. Asa Barnes –hematology, Daniel Rosenstein – transfusion medicine, Wally Rogers – parasitology all make the list. Add Baxter Collins – military history.
We had braised short ribs in a stroganoff-like yogurt based sauce over egg noodles last night. Class days usually result in a hurried soup dinner or some other quick fix. Tonight we’ll finish off the left over’s that tasted so good last night.
There is an argument taking place on one of the forums I follow concerning what Israel must concede to gain peace. With few exceptions, the group is calling for Israel to withdraw behind the untenable pre-67 borders. They also want to bi-nationalize Jerusalem.
My position is that Israel should stop building any settlements but should cede no more territory and should not share Jerusalem. These positions, along with my belief that the collective Arab community will never willingly make peace with Israel has placed me far to the political and social right of nearly all the other correspondents. On the other forum that I have monitored, I’m farther to the left than they are willing to acknowledge. I oppose any acceptance by Israel of support from any end of days groups. Again, my stance places me on the outer edges of acceptance in both forums. I think that at those edges is where I should be. I can’t tolerate the new and improved left fawning over the PLO, Arafat, and now Hamas. Nor can I tolerate the people like Palin and Huckabee who want Israel only because their doomsday plans, tempered in really bad acid, calls for a mass conversion and a quick shuffle off the mortal coil.
I’ll stay where I am. I don’t hate either edge. But I know that Israel is not guilty of pogroms as accused by anti-Zionists, not perfect, not able to forego defensive policies. I don’t hate Arabs but I don’t trust them to ever act in the best interests of Israel. The would-be-Palestinians have had 62 years to forge a nation, the same amount of time Israel has had. Reality tells me that the “Arabs care more about destroying Israel than ever building their own state.
See what tomorrow brings. Falling leaves and feeling more rested would be an excellent start.
Today’s words: Ka Mastaba
Monday, September 20, 2010
20 September 2010 Happy days are here again?
By Chris Isidore, senior writerSeptember 20, 2010: 1:45 PM ET
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the body charged with dating when economic downturns begin and end. But the news comes amid rising fears of a double-dip recession.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group of economists, released a statement Monday saying economic data now clearly points to the economy turning higher last summer.
That makes the 18-month recession that started in December 2007 the longest and deepest downturn for the U.S. economy since the Great Depression.”
http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/20/news/economy/recession_over/index.htm?hpt=T1
This should be wonderful news, made even more welcome by its proximity to the coming mid-term elections. Certainly the Democrats will welcome good economic news. The Tea Party mobs will claim it is untrue and the GOP will do everything it can to roll the economic situation back to September of 2008.
The GOP has a propaganda arm that exceeds the Goebbels machine’s ability to convince people that they should vote against their own self interests. How many American citizens lacking health insurance are currently parading around with signs denouncing national health insurance as “socialized medicine?” Forget, for the moment that our health care system is largely socialized. How do you convince people who need health insurance desperately to scream that it should not be provided by the government? How do you convince voters that they should vote to block their own access to health care? How do you convince voters that the wealthy should not pay taxes but that the former middle class should?
I don’t know the answers to those questions but I know that generating that voter sentiment requires lies, horrible lies, keyed upon making the voter feel that he will suddenly be paying for insurance for “the lazy”, “the illegal”, and the “undeserving.” The voter has to be made to forget that insurance companies are already adding huge amounts to his premiums – assuming he still has a job and health insurance benefits- to pay for the citizens who no longer can afford insurance benefits, the illegals, and the stupid who feel they should not have to buy insurance. And sure enough the GOP machine can somehow generate the propaganda that fills that demand.
The Democrats, the pitiful remnants of the party that built Social Security, that desegregated the armed forces, passes civil rights legislation, and crafted Medicare, while defeating the GOP’s “let the poor die” platform, no longer have the courage or the coalition to pass a bill lowering taxes for the former middle class. The Obama administration has actually done some positive things that kept the US economy from tanking and taking the world along with it. But they had to do some things that angered the public, propping up big banks and the auto industry. Then they dragged their feet on financial reform and essentially let the same bastards who created the bank failures write their own regulatory laws, making it all too likely that they will start gambling with the public’s money once again.
They, the Democrats, have positive results to trumpet. But the GOP machine is louder, slicker, and plays to the anti-intellectualism and racism/xenophobia that is swamping the results of a sadly degraded educational system. It’s an uphill slog for the part of the Democratic machine that still has a voter base to reach. It’s far easier to ignore the poorly educated, to allow the Swift-boating and other lies to blow candidates out of the game. It’s also cheaper. The GOP raises money from the fearful. The folks who are afraid of dark skin,
Spanish, Islam, tax-funded healthcare for all citizens are going to make certain the GOP has enough money to lie about any Democratic candidate with a glimmer of hope.
The political machinery of the Roosevelt days and even those of Truman’s era up through LBJ’s terms knew how to raise money, raise hopes, and turn out the voters. They pointed out the GOP lies and made certain that everyone had a chance to refute them for the BS they were. FDR talked to the people, gave them hope, nor discouragement. Truman spoke the language of the common man and called bigotry and hatred out on its home turf. JFK dealt with his religion at the beginning and then ignored it. The LBJ campaign fielded the most impressive, most frightening, and most powerful campaign ad ever use. The mushroom cloud ad won the election for LBJ.
Obama needs a speechwriter who can move the anti-intellectual, repulse the lies about his political and religious philosophies. He needs to put fire into his speeches, hammer the lies and then let others reinforce that effort. He needs to ignore demagogues and point the way Congress should proceed, needs to systematically lay out every instance where the GOP has blocked his efforts and then castigate the Democrats and his own administration for letting them do it.
I’m glad the recession has ended. It isn’t that evident here. People have no jobs, no insurance, no money, and no hope. It may have ended for the economists. For the populace, for most of us, it looks like the hard times are still knocking at cabin doors.
The solutions that worked in the Great Depression will eventually work in the “Reagan-Bush, not-so-great recession.” We need infrastructure repairs, parks need cleaning up, and we need people to care for the aged and the young. We need people to join VISTA and America Corps programs once Congress gets off their ass and stops letting the minority GOP call the tunes. The Democrats can still pull their feet out of the flames if they remember who they once were. They need to stop fighting internally, plan a platform and fight for it as if their lives depend upon it. I think they do.
I’d like to see the Democrats bring back “Happy Days Are Here Again” this year. Sure, it is an old song, older than most voters. But its lyric, its melody, and its message worked up through 1964. Truthfully I can’t think of a better theme song or a better wish for American voters.
David Gans wrote two tremendous songs about the American Condition which can be found on his web site. “An American Family” and “Save Us From The Saved” are perfect in content and intent for this campaign. I encourage you to look them up at http://www.trufun.com/lyrics.html. The rest of his music is top-flight as well. If he’s playing in your area, find a way to see and hear him perform.
We’d better push these songs and the philosophy they project. If the GOP and the Tea Party/Theocrats take this election, we’re going to be spending at least another decade singing “Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime.”
“NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Great Recession ended in June 2009, according to the body charged with dating when economic downturns begin and end. But the news comes amid rising fears of a double-dip recession.
The National Bureau of Economic Research, an independent group of economists, released a statement Monday saying economic data now clearly points to the economy turning higher last summer.
That makes the 18-month recession that started in December 2007 the longest and deepest downturn for the U.S. economy since the Great Depression.”
http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/20/news/economy/recession_over/index.htm?hpt=T1
This should be wonderful news, made even more welcome by its proximity to the coming mid-term elections. Certainly the Democrats will welcome good economic news. The Tea Party mobs will claim it is untrue and the GOP will do everything it can to roll the economic situation back to September of 2008.
The GOP has a propaganda arm that exceeds the Goebbels machine’s ability to convince people that they should vote against their own self interests. How many American citizens lacking health insurance are currently parading around with signs denouncing national health insurance as “socialized medicine?” Forget, for the moment that our health care system is largely socialized. How do you convince people who need health insurance desperately to scream that it should not be provided by the government? How do you convince voters that they should vote to block their own access to health care? How do you convince voters that the wealthy should not pay taxes but that the former middle class should?
I don’t know the answers to those questions but I know that generating that voter sentiment requires lies, horrible lies, keyed upon making the voter feel that he will suddenly be paying for insurance for “the lazy”, “the illegal”, and the “undeserving.” The voter has to be made to forget that insurance companies are already adding huge amounts to his premiums – assuming he still has a job and health insurance benefits- to pay for the citizens who no longer can afford insurance benefits, the illegals, and the stupid who feel they should not have to buy insurance. And sure enough the GOP machine can somehow generate the propaganda that fills that demand.
The Democrats, the pitiful remnants of the party that built Social Security, that desegregated the armed forces, passes civil rights legislation, and crafted Medicare, while defeating the GOP’s “let the poor die” platform, no longer have the courage or the coalition to pass a bill lowering taxes for the former middle class. The Obama administration has actually done some positive things that kept the US economy from tanking and taking the world along with it. But they had to do some things that angered the public, propping up big banks and the auto industry. Then they dragged their feet on financial reform and essentially let the same bastards who created the bank failures write their own regulatory laws, making it all too likely that they will start gambling with the public’s money once again.
They, the Democrats, have positive results to trumpet. But the GOP machine is louder, slicker, and plays to the anti-intellectualism and racism/xenophobia that is swamping the results of a sadly degraded educational system. It’s an uphill slog for the part of the Democratic machine that still has a voter base to reach. It’s far easier to ignore the poorly educated, to allow the Swift-boating and other lies to blow candidates out of the game. It’s also cheaper. The GOP raises money from the fearful. The folks who are afraid of dark skin,
Spanish, Islam, tax-funded healthcare for all citizens are going to make certain the GOP has enough money to lie about any Democratic candidate with a glimmer of hope.
The political machinery of the Roosevelt days and even those of Truman’s era up through LBJ’s terms knew how to raise money, raise hopes, and turn out the voters. They pointed out the GOP lies and made certain that everyone had a chance to refute them for the BS they were. FDR talked to the people, gave them hope, nor discouragement. Truman spoke the language of the common man and called bigotry and hatred out on its home turf. JFK dealt with his religion at the beginning and then ignored it. The LBJ campaign fielded the most impressive, most frightening, and most powerful campaign ad ever use. The mushroom cloud ad won the election for LBJ.
Obama needs a speechwriter who can move the anti-intellectual, repulse the lies about his political and religious philosophies. He needs to put fire into his speeches, hammer the lies and then let others reinforce that effort. He needs to ignore demagogues and point the way Congress should proceed, needs to systematically lay out every instance where the GOP has blocked his efforts and then castigate the Democrats and his own administration for letting them do it.
I’m glad the recession has ended. It isn’t that evident here. People have no jobs, no insurance, no money, and no hope. It may have ended for the economists. For the populace, for most of us, it looks like the hard times are still knocking at cabin doors.
The solutions that worked in the Great Depression will eventually work in the “Reagan-Bush, not-so-great recession.” We need infrastructure repairs, parks need cleaning up, and we need people to care for the aged and the young. We need people to join VISTA and America Corps programs once Congress gets off their ass and stops letting the minority GOP call the tunes. The Democrats can still pull their feet out of the flames if they remember who they once were. They need to stop fighting internally, plan a platform and fight for it as if their lives depend upon it. I think they do.
I’d like to see the Democrats bring back “Happy Days Are Here Again” this year. Sure, it is an old song, older than most voters. But its lyric, its melody, and its message worked up through 1964. Truthfully I can’t think of a better theme song or a better wish for American voters.
David Gans wrote two tremendous songs about the American Condition which can be found on his web site. “An American Family” and “Save Us From The Saved” are perfect in content and intent for this campaign. I encourage you to look them up at http://www.trufun.com/lyrics.html. The rest of his music is top-flight as well. If he’s playing in your area, find a way to see and hear him perform.
We’d better push these songs and the philosophy they project. If the GOP and the Tea Party/Theocrats take this election, we’re going to be spending at least another decade singing “Buddy, Can You Spare A Dime.”
Sunday, September 19, 2010
19 September 2010 Hard to tell our troops from the Russians, or the tribe up the valley
“Members of U.S. platoon in Afghanistan accused of killing civilians for sport
By Craig Whitlock
Saturday, September 18, 2010; 9:39 PM
“AT JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASH. The U.S. soldiers hatched a plan as simple as it was savage: to randomly target and kill an Afghan civilian, and to get away with it.”
“According to charging documents, the unprovoked, fatal attack on Jan. 15 was the start of a months-long shooting spree against Afghan civilians that resulted in some of the grisliest allegations against American soldiers since the U.S. invasion in 2001. Members of the platoon have been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as hoarding a skull and other human bones.
The subsequent investigation has raised accusations about whether the military ignored warnings that the out-of-control soldiers were committing atrocities. The father of one soldier said he repeatedly tried to alert the Army after his son told him about the first killing, only to be rebuffed. “
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091803935.html?hpid=topnews
This is the worst possible news I can imagine from Afghanistan or any other place where we have troops deployed. The pre-meditated decision to commit murder of civilians in a foreign country where we are not very welcome for multiple reasons is certain to fuel the flames of opposition and cause more casualties among our troops.
We’ve always known that murders take place in wars. That excludes those deaths that happen as the result of unit actions ordered by civil and military leaders and carried out to achieve military gains, captured ground, etc. In today’s American armed forces great care is taken when planning and executing campaigns and missions to minimize loss of life among non-combatants. These plans actually may increase the possibility of American casualties. The IDF made a similar decision during their incursion into Jenin operating against Hammas and other insurgents. Most 1st world nations make every effort to avoid civilian casualties during combat operations.
Unfortunately, the nature of armed combat provides many opportunities for those who wish to commit murder and other crimes against people. Very few civilians are going to oppose heavily armed troops. The weapons available today make it very easy to kill at long distances without making very much noise. In the heavily mechanized environs of modern warfare, suppressed rifles may allow a murderer to escape notice. The confusion that exists during combat may allow someone to intentionally misidentify a non-combatant as armed and engaging one of our units.
The armed forces leaders are acutely aware that murdering civilians only makes their chances of winning a conflict much less likely. Societies have long memories. Afghanistan has been at war for centuries under one banner or another, invaded by one nation or another. Its people can hold a grudge forever. We’ve done what we can to minimize new hatreds and grudges. Now a group of criminals wearing the uniform of my nation has committed murders that reduced the integrity and character of our armed forces to that of the old Soviet army and of tribal warlords. We can’t claim any moral superiority when we allow soldiers to commit murders, apparently for sport. And that’s what it seems to be.
Men who have no morality, no ethics, and who falsely claim to be soldiers, have disgraced our Army. They planned and carried out murders, dismembered corpses and kept body parts in an Islamic nation, where rapid burial of the entire body is necessary for reasons of faith. The whistle blower in this case was beaten and threatened by the other criminals.
There was apparently an attempt to bring these crimes and plans for subsequent murders to the attention of several military agencies. The delays involved allowed more murders to take place. There should have been no delay in beginning an investigation of these allegations. How much delay was due to the military situation and its demands remains to be seen. What has happened is detailed in the article cited above; charges have been filed against suspected murderers and accomplices. The military will take a hard line with these men if they are found guilty in courts-martial. Soldiers value their personal honor and that of their units.
It may be that these men will claim that their operational training led them to commit these crimes. The de-humanization of the enemy that all armies use to help ready their forces to engage in combat is likely to surface as a defense. If so, it will be invalid. Soldiers know right from wrong, necessary deaths in combat from wanton murders. They will not deal kindly with men who have murdered the innocent.
The oversight system that might have caught these criminals after the first murder failed. No one wants to believe their unit mates are criminals, nor do they wish to unjustly accuse them and damage unit cohesiveness. But soldiers know that such crimes can’t go unpunished. And they know that murderers are not and will never again be soldiers.
We’ve already faced a series of such crimes in Iraq, committed by mercenaries. We have there another reason our nation should never use mercenaries to replace soldiers. Soldiers place honor above money. Mercenaries fight for the highest bidder. They are not soldiers no matter how many years of military service they put in. Once they stop working for the nation, they are outside the Pale as far as I am concerned.
I’ll try to follow this case. It will be as damaging as the idiots who want to burn Qurans and forbid the construction of Islamic centers. America has some remaining chance to leave some Afghans with a favorable impression of us. Common criminals and religious fanatics make it hard to convince anyone on the ground we’re not common thugs like too many of the USSR troops who purposely built bombs into toys to maim and murder children.
Keep the gallows operable in Leavenworth.
By Craig Whitlock
Saturday, September 18, 2010; 9:39 PM
“AT JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASH. The U.S. soldiers hatched a plan as simple as it was savage: to randomly target and kill an Afghan civilian, and to get away with it.”
“According to charging documents, the unprovoked, fatal attack on Jan. 15 was the start of a months-long shooting spree against Afghan civilians that resulted in some of the grisliest allegations against American soldiers since the U.S. invasion in 2001. Members of the platoon have been charged with dismembering and photographing corpses, as well as hoarding a skull and other human bones.
The subsequent investigation has raised accusations about whether the military ignored warnings that the out-of-control soldiers were committing atrocities. The father of one soldier said he repeatedly tried to alert the Army after his son told him about the first killing, only to be rebuffed. “
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091803935.html?hpid=topnews
This is the worst possible news I can imagine from Afghanistan or any other place where we have troops deployed. The pre-meditated decision to commit murder of civilians in a foreign country where we are not very welcome for multiple reasons is certain to fuel the flames of opposition and cause more casualties among our troops.
We’ve always known that murders take place in wars. That excludes those deaths that happen as the result of unit actions ordered by civil and military leaders and carried out to achieve military gains, captured ground, etc. In today’s American armed forces great care is taken when planning and executing campaigns and missions to minimize loss of life among non-combatants. These plans actually may increase the possibility of American casualties. The IDF made a similar decision during their incursion into Jenin operating against Hammas and other insurgents. Most 1st world nations make every effort to avoid civilian casualties during combat operations.
Unfortunately, the nature of armed combat provides many opportunities for those who wish to commit murder and other crimes against people. Very few civilians are going to oppose heavily armed troops. The weapons available today make it very easy to kill at long distances without making very much noise. In the heavily mechanized environs of modern warfare, suppressed rifles may allow a murderer to escape notice. The confusion that exists during combat may allow someone to intentionally misidentify a non-combatant as armed and engaging one of our units.
The armed forces leaders are acutely aware that murdering civilians only makes their chances of winning a conflict much less likely. Societies have long memories. Afghanistan has been at war for centuries under one banner or another, invaded by one nation or another. Its people can hold a grudge forever. We’ve done what we can to minimize new hatreds and grudges. Now a group of criminals wearing the uniform of my nation has committed murders that reduced the integrity and character of our armed forces to that of the old Soviet army and of tribal warlords. We can’t claim any moral superiority when we allow soldiers to commit murders, apparently for sport. And that’s what it seems to be.
Men who have no morality, no ethics, and who falsely claim to be soldiers, have disgraced our Army. They planned and carried out murders, dismembered corpses and kept body parts in an Islamic nation, where rapid burial of the entire body is necessary for reasons of faith. The whistle blower in this case was beaten and threatened by the other criminals.
There was apparently an attempt to bring these crimes and plans for subsequent murders to the attention of several military agencies. The delays involved allowed more murders to take place. There should have been no delay in beginning an investigation of these allegations. How much delay was due to the military situation and its demands remains to be seen. What has happened is detailed in the article cited above; charges have been filed against suspected murderers and accomplices. The military will take a hard line with these men if they are found guilty in courts-martial. Soldiers value their personal honor and that of their units.
It may be that these men will claim that their operational training led them to commit these crimes. The de-humanization of the enemy that all armies use to help ready their forces to engage in combat is likely to surface as a defense. If so, it will be invalid. Soldiers know right from wrong, necessary deaths in combat from wanton murders. They will not deal kindly with men who have murdered the innocent.
The oversight system that might have caught these criminals after the first murder failed. No one wants to believe their unit mates are criminals, nor do they wish to unjustly accuse them and damage unit cohesiveness. But soldiers know that such crimes can’t go unpunished. And they know that murderers are not and will never again be soldiers.
We’ve already faced a series of such crimes in Iraq, committed by mercenaries. We have there another reason our nation should never use mercenaries to replace soldiers. Soldiers place honor above money. Mercenaries fight for the highest bidder. They are not soldiers no matter how many years of military service they put in. Once they stop working for the nation, they are outside the Pale as far as I am concerned.
I’ll try to follow this case. It will be as damaging as the idiots who want to burn Qurans and forbid the construction of Islamic centers. America has some remaining chance to leave some Afghans with a favorable impression of us. Common criminals and religious fanatics make it hard to convince anyone on the ground we’re not common thugs like too many of the USSR troops who purposely built bombs into toys to maim and murder children.
Keep the gallows operable in Leavenworth.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Yom Kippur, and who shall I say is calling?”
18 September 2010 Yom Kippur
Black letters on a white representation of a page of paper.
To most of the American population the words mean little beyond the annual video of Chassidic Jews with a chicken. I cringe every time I see Jews, still dressed in the clothing of the 16th century armed with chickens. But it is part of an old ritual that Hasidim and Haredim still practice during the Days of Awe.
“Kaparot
"This chicken will go to its death while I will enter into a good long life..."
“Kaparot is an ancient and mystical custom connected to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It can be performed anytime between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, but most often it is performed just after dawn on the day before Yom Kippur.
The original form of the kaparot ceremony involves taking a chicken (a white rooster for a male, hen for a female) and waving it over one’s head while reciting this prayer: "This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This chicken will go to its death while I will enter and proceed to a good long life, and peace." Then the chicken is slaughtered and it (or its cash value) is given to the poor.
While kaparot is still practiced by more orthodox Jews, most Jews today perform kaparot by waving money wrapped in a white cloth napkin over their head, reciting the prayer and then giving the money to charity following the ceremony. “
I’ve never taken part in Kaparot rituals and have never seen anyone waving money around their heads. I’ve always been taught that one did not handle money on Shabbat or on other holidays. Since I attend reform or conservative services when possible, I’m unlikely to see the Kaparot ritual.
I have seen Kaparot performed with bits of bread which is then cast upon a stream or other body of water.
What it comes down to for me is that no substitute for me exists. If I have a need to repent and atone, nothing removes that need or obligation. I don’t have to wait until Yom Kippur in order to atone. This is just a day that brings Jews world-wide together in the practice. If there is benefit to communal prayer and atonement for common flaws and failures, then today should benefit us all, not just Jews.
No chicken, cash, or bread will take my place. The task of atonement falls to me. The prayer and fasting are only aids that help prepare us mentally and emotionally. This is evident in one of my favorite parts of the High Holidays services:
Composition of Unetanneh Tokef
According to legend, recorded in the medieval commentary Or Zarua, Unetanneh Tokef was composed by the medieval sage Rabbi Amnon of Mainz.
“All mankind will pass before You like members of the flock. Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the fixed needs of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.
On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted. But repentance, prayer, and charity remove the evil of the Decree!"
The words of the prayer are the inspiration of Leonard Cohen's song "Who By Fire"
“And who by fire, who by water,
who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
who in solitude, who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains, who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?”
Black letters on a white representation of a page of paper.
To most of the American population the words mean little beyond the annual video of Chassidic Jews with a chicken. I cringe every time I see Jews, still dressed in the clothing of the 16th century armed with chickens. But it is part of an old ritual that Hasidim and Haredim still practice during the Days of Awe.
“Kaparot
"This chicken will go to its death while I will enter into a good long life..."
“Kaparot is an ancient and mystical custom connected to the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. It can be performed anytime between Rosh HaShana and Yom Kippur, but most often it is performed just after dawn on the day before Yom Kippur.
The original form of the kaparot ceremony involves taking a chicken (a white rooster for a male, hen for a female) and waving it over one’s head while reciting this prayer: "This is my exchange, this is my substitute, this is my atonement. This chicken will go to its death while I will enter and proceed to a good long life, and peace." Then the chicken is slaughtered and it (or its cash value) is given to the poor.
While kaparot is still practiced by more orthodox Jews, most Jews today perform kaparot by waving money wrapped in a white cloth napkin over their head, reciting the prayer and then giving the money to charity following the ceremony. “
I’ve never taken part in Kaparot rituals and have never seen anyone waving money around their heads. I’ve always been taught that one did not handle money on Shabbat or on other holidays. Since I attend reform or conservative services when possible, I’m unlikely to see the Kaparot ritual.
I have seen Kaparot performed with bits of bread which is then cast upon a stream or other body of water.
What it comes down to for me is that no substitute for me exists. If I have a need to repent and atone, nothing removes that need or obligation. I don’t have to wait until Yom Kippur in order to atone. This is just a day that brings Jews world-wide together in the practice. If there is benefit to communal prayer and atonement for common flaws and failures, then today should benefit us all, not just Jews.
No chicken, cash, or bread will take my place. The task of atonement falls to me. The prayer and fasting are only aids that help prepare us mentally and emotionally. This is evident in one of my favorite parts of the High Holidays services:
Composition of Unetanneh Tokef
According to legend, recorded in the medieval commentary Or Zarua, Unetanneh Tokef was composed by the medieval sage Rabbi Amnon of Mainz.
“All mankind will pass before You like members of the flock. Like a shepherd pasturing his flock, making sheep pass under his staff, so shall You cause to pass, count, calculate, and consider the soul of all the living; and You shall apportion the fixed needs of all Your creatures and inscribe their verdict.
On Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die at his predestined time and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword, who by beast, who by famine, who by thirst, who by storm, who by plague, who by strangulation, and who by stoning. Who will rest and who will wander, who will live in harmony and who will be harried, who will enjoy tranquility and who will suffer, who will be impoverished and who will be enriched, who will be degraded and who will be exalted. But repentance, prayer, and charity remove the evil of the Decree!"
The words of the prayer are the inspiration of Leonard Cohen's song "Who By Fire"
“And who by fire, who by water,
who in the sunshine, who in the night time,
who by high ordeal, who by common trial,
who in your merry merry month of may,
who by very slow decay,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who in her lonely slip, who by barbiturate,
who in these realms of love, who by something blunt,
and who by avalanche, who by powder,
who for his greed, who for his hunger,
and who shall I say is calling?
And who by brave assent, who by accident,
who in solitude, who in this mirror,
who by his lady's command, who by his own hand,
who in mortal chains, who in power,
and who shall I say is calling?”
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