Fort Hood Shooting an Act of Islamist Terror? A Little Honesty Please

If you can heal the symptoms but not affect the cause
Then you can't heal the symptoms

- Tom Marshal, Lyric from Phish song 'Sand'

It's probably a bit odd to quote a lyric from the least political band ever in a very political piece but it's very appropriate in this case. The mainly left-wing American mainstream media and our current administration have refused to even contemplate what I think most intelligent Americans know to be obvious: That Nidal Malik Hasan committed the worst massacre on an army base on U.S. soil as a result of his holding a radical Islamist ideology. If that's not terrorism, I don't know what is? And what do we gain by playing some idiotic semantic game, as the Obama administration would like?

So what's the big deal? A murder is a murder, right? And if what happened on Thursday in Texas was terrorism, why isn't the Oklahoma State Bombing or Columbine or any number of other incidents?

Well first of all, I'd argue any incident committed out of an ideology that preaches hatred and mass murder is indeed an act of terror. The notion that only a muslim can commit terrorism is downright offensive; anyone can commit an act of terror and the ideologies that can lead someone to commit so horrible an act are varied. In my experience, the people who commit these sort of acts within open and free societies rely on an ideology of some sort that demonizes large swaths of their fellow members of society and that demands vengeance and mass murder as a result. So there's nothing qualitatively worse about radicalized Islam then say the far-right ideology that led Timothy McVeigh to murder hundreds in Oklahoma City. It doesn't matter whether the terrorist acted alone or as part of some larger group. It's the ideology and targeting of a specific national, religious, or sexual group or orientation simply because they're members of that group that makes an act a 'terrorist' act. (Thus, a military targeting fighters that accidentally catches civilians in the crossfire is not committing a terror act.)

That being said, to deny the background that led to this most recent attack, to use Orwellian news-speak as the NY Times has in refusing to even identify the shooter's religion for over a day after the attack and fail to report details like that he screamed 'Allah Akbar' as he opened fire is downright dangerous and extremely dishonest (not that I expect honesty from the media ;-). Because it places a barrier to preventing this sort of act in the future. As in the AA's 12-step program, the first step to arriving at a solution is admitting you have a problem and identifying very specifically what that is.

As Mark Steyn wrote in the National Review this weekend in his excellent piece:

What happened to those men and women at Fort Hood had a horrible symbolism: Members of the best trained, best equipped fighting force on the planet gunned down by a guy who said a few goofy things no one took seriously. And that’s the problem: America has the best troops and fiercest firepower, but no strategy for throttling the ideology that drives the enemy — in Afghanistan and in Texas.

If you can't even admit that ideology exists and is at the root of this sort of act, then you can't fight it or stop it. And if this root cause isn't properly addressed, I assume this sort of act will happen again and again on U.S. soil. And President Obama will be digging his own political grave, because mainstream media denials aside, the American people are pretty perceptive when it comes to this sort of thing and they're gonna want to know why their men in uniform are being sacrificed on the altar of political correctness and strategic ignorance in the face of a threat that won't simply go away because we pretend it doesn't really exist.

Naked in Fairfax County, VA

So apparently, being naked in your home carries up to a year in prison in Fairfax County, VA. The Washington Post reports here. Eric Williamson was making breakfast naked is his own home, minding his own business when some cops arrived at his door and arrested him. Apparently a mother and her 7 year old son were passing by and saw him and did the obvious thing to do in that situation: they called the cops. They would have made for fine informants in Nazi Germany but that's besides the point.

Viewing nudity as some mortal sin stems from an overly Christian view of the human body in my opinion. If all sexuality is evil, then exposing a naked body, even in your own home, must be some sort of cardinal sin. Makes me glad I live in Jerusalem where the thought of imprisoning someone for this sort of thing would be laughable.

It also reminds me of a run-in I had with the law in Fairfax County, where this absurd comedy of justice is taking place. The year was 2002 and me and two friends (Eytan Bayme and Noam Osband) had done a 2 week spin from NYC down to the first Bonnaroo in Tennesse, then to Memphis, Little Rock, and New Orleans across the Panhandle and back up North. By the time we were passing through Fairfax, our car (the famous 'Lissmobile' '89 Red Astrovan) was a total mess. It was 2 a.m., Osband was at the wheel and got lost and made an illegal turn. Big mistake in Fairfax. We were immediately pulled over and 4 cops spent the next 2 hours combing over every inch of our van until 4 in the morning. They of course found nothing except a legal pill case with prescription medication.

Every so often, the Alpha Male of the group would say 'I know that's ecstasy in the pill case - you boys are in a heap of trouble.' He also asked us if we were following the Dead around - I had to break him the news that Jerry Garcia had died 7 years earlier. He was a pretty sorry excuse for a human being, relishing every tiny bit of authority he had. They also found fireworks which though legal pretty much everywhere south of the Mason Dixon line were illegal on that one stretch of road we happened to find ourselves on.

To conclude, if you happen to ever find yourself in Fairfax County, VA, run like hell. They don't look kindly on people like yourself, unless you've never before had a bottle of prescription medication in your possession and of course never been naked, even in your own home.

There Go Those Horrible Settlers Saving Another Palestinian Life

It's a shame some news doesn't get reported by the liberal-oriented western media. Anyone who knows me knows I'm certainly not the biggest fan of the settler enterprise. But last night pulling out of Efrat in the West Bank just past Bethlehem, I noticed a scene I have come upon once or twice in the past. An Arab family was sitting at the gate looking on hopefully while Jewish paramedics in full settler attire (if such a thing exists) were working frantically to save a Palestinian from a neighboring village. Being that Efrat has better first response medical supplies and personnel than many of the local Palestinian villages, Palestinians in dire need come right up to the gate of this settlement for emergency care when they truly require it.

I'm sure there was no time for these 'settler' paramedics to take a security history of this dying Palestinian. He or his family could have been terrorists or terrorist sympathizers for all they knew. But a human being in need showed up in desperate shape and they treated him as any decent person would: like a human being. Race, religion or creed played no factor in their medical decisions. And if the settlers were so damn dangerous, would a whole family of Palestinians really risk coming right up to the gate of a settlement and risk getting medical treatment? Clearly they wouldn't.

The NY Times, Haaretz, and assorted European media outlets should take note: Things in the territories are rarely what they seem. Or do some members of the western media elite already know this and choose to paint a far more black and white picture of things anyway just to further a predetermined agenda? Either way, these sorts of omissions in reporting on life in the Territories is nothing short of criminal. And instead of focussing on things that bring could people together, they create an unnecessary level of distrust between people for no real reason.

P.S. Thanks to Simone for this title - she exclaimed it immediately after we witnessed the scene described above and I instantly knew it would be the title of my next blog post.

Obama's Latest Iran Gambit: Kudos!

I have been somewhat critical of our current President on my blog over the last few months - especially as pertains to his dealings with Israel. I have to say, it's beginning to appear I may have underestimated his shrewdness when it comes to foreign policy. Case in point: he dropped this metaphorical bomb on the Iranians Friday together with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French Pres. Nicholas Sarkozy ('U.S. and Allies Warn Iran Over Nuclear ‘Deception’ - NY Times).

By first getting the Iranians to agree to meet and then only 5 days before the scheduled meeting, confronting them with nearly incontrovertible proof that they have a secret nuclear program hidden inside a mountain just outside of the Mullah's headquarters in Qom, he has backed them into a corner. They back out now and it becomes obvious they are hiding something. They show up to the meeting and they will be forced to answer for their secretive building project and subsequent deception in front of the globe's major superpowers (there's no question the plant is for a weapons program - it's too small for enriching fuel for energy needs unlike the previously declared and inspected plant at Natanz and Iran's failure to declare the plant and its location on a Revolutionary Guard base as well as its location just outside Qom pretty much seal the case.)

In a possible swipe at President Bush, Pres. Obama says he waited to come forth with the revelations to ensure the intelligence data the U.S. had was accurate - unlike Bush with Iraq's supposed WMDs. But the timing can not have been accidental. Waiting till less than a week before the meeting with Iran is too perfect to be merely coincidence. As Obama put it Friday,

“Iran is on notice that when we meet with them on Oct. 1 they are going to have to come clean and they will have to make a choice... The alternative to giving up their program is to continue down a path that is going to lead to confrontation.”

So Kudos to Obama for his latest Iran gambit. He'll certainly have an easier time convincing major global powers to impose 'crippling' sanctions than his predecessor, especially after meeting Iran face to face. No one will be able to say he didn't try. And now he's got a picture of Tehran with the 'smoking gun', so to speak.

Which brings me to another less important point but something I've been meaning to write about nonetheless: What's up with the insane anti-Obama attitude among Orthodox Jews?! In shul in Monsey on Rosh Hashana, the Rabbi suffixed Obama's name with a 'Yimach Shemo' - 'may his name be obliterated' - a phrase generally reserved for the likes of Hitler, Arafat, and Torquemada. Pretty much people who have spent their entire lives oppressing and murdering Jews by the thousands. Unfortunately, most Orthodox Jews are too illiterate, gullible and closed-minded to actually give Obama a fair hearing - I can name many similar instances since Obama took office, though few were this offensive (I was at a party in June, also in Monsey, where someone suggested a plate of extra watermelons be sent to Obama, to some snickers - that may have actually been worse. Come to think of it, maybe Monsey is the real problem ;-) ). Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all Orthodox Jews disdain Obama and of those that do many are not racist but I am still perturbed by all this, especially when the evidence is beginning to mount that the man may actually have some of our best interests in mind.

Bottom line: If he stands Iran down on the A-bomb - still a big if- he will be an automatic hero of mine and I will consider him Israel's greatest friend to ever serve in the White House. And right now, he's got a hell of a better chance of pulling it off than Bush, who carried a big stick, and allowed Iran to get 8 years closer to developing nukes.

Yalah Shachar! Andele Andy!

So only a crazy person would do this. I got off the nearly 12 hour flight from Israel to NYC, on which I barely slept b/c I was taking care of my two kids, both of who refused to sleep. My mom met us at the airport and dropped me by my brother Mo at the Subway on Jewel Ave. in Queens (right near his place near Queens College) where we got footlongs to go (kosher subway! I love NY) - mine was some sort of Italian style pastrami and turkey - delish! Then it was off to Flushing Meadows, home of the world's largest field of toilets and more importantly, round two of the U.S. Open.

We had nightcap tickets but that still gave us a groundspass which proved to be the best part of the whole thing. We got in and looked at the big scoreboard on Ashe Stadium to see what was going on. Shachar Pe'er, Israel's lone female hope was warming up on court 11 so we headed in there and were treated to a thrashing of Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro. Sachar was in top form, barely making an error and dropping only 2 games in 2 sets. I still think her serve needs to improve big time if she wants to really go far in a major but it was great to see her play so well following her injury.

The Israeli fans at her matches are insane. Constant screaming and catcalling, flag waiving, they bring their whole extended families out, pick up their cell phoes in the middle of a point. But they really get Shachar's back and I think it gives her lots of energy to play her best. My brother Yaakov, who hits a lot of U.S. Open tennis thinks Shachar has a better fan base there than most American players, with notable exceptions like Roddick and the Williams sisters.

Mid-match, I hopped out to go to the bathroom and found myself next to a guy who towered over me. I'm not a short guy - 6'1" or so - and I've never felt like such a midget in my life. This guy may have been 7 feet, or just under if not.

Next we wandered the grounds and caught some good doubles (#3 team Knowles and Bhupathi) and caught the last set and a half of Phillipe Kohlshrieber against an Indian qualifier Samdiev Devvarman. Kohlshreiber won fairly easily in terms of the line score but Samdiev put up a huge fight on every point, dragging points to as many as 40 groundstrokes. He was very scrappy.

Then it was into Arthur Ashe Stadium for the end of Shrapova and the Andy Roddick match. Ashe is insane. I haven't been to the Open since the days of Sampras and Aggassi and so have never sat in the monstrosity that is Ashe. It holds nearly 25,000 people and from our vantage point in the uper deck, we could see the action well but didn't feel like we were at a tennis match but rather a Yankees game. The crowd gets pretty into the matches so that's cool. Roddick is in top form and I think he's gona go deep this year. I kind of hope he even wins - he derserves it and is playing so well he just may pull it off. The guys behind us kept catcalling 'Brooklyn' - Roddick's Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition model turned wife, Brooklyn Deckert. Funny stuff.

My Dad is funny to watch there. He's not a big fan of waiting on lines, which you have to do a fair bit with the grounds pass, so if you see a middle-aged man running across the grounds to beat the rush into a no-name first round mixed doubes match, it may be him ;-) Good times - a great way to arrive in NYC. Thanks guys!

New Blog Post Anyone?

So I was at an awesome wedding last night (mazal tov Israel and Ariella!) and got several complaints that I haven't blogged in awhile. I've had a backlog of ideas but August is always difficult for me due to work constraints that I wouldn't feel comfortable discussing here (plus some of co-workers read this, hanging onto my every word ;-). Let's just say I pull more than my fair share of overtime in August - that's just how it goes when you care about what you do, how your website comes out, and half the company is on vacation simultaneously.

So I figured I'd throw out there some of the ideas I've been kicking around and let my readers decide which I should pursue next for full-length treatment. After all, at the Common Sensorium, we're all about giving you what you want when you want it. I'll hopefully get to all of these eventually - the question is which should I get cracking on now?

Here's the list of possible topics:

- Awesome gefilte fish by hand recipe and description of process

- Shopping at Mega on Tisha Be'av - a uniquely Israeli experience

- Metzitza Bepeh rant - why moels that perform this disgusting practice are no different than pedophiles

- The NY Giants desperately need WRs if they're to be competative this year

- Legal troubles and Neck pain - a lethal Israeli mix

On a side note, I would like to propose a new definition for the term 'Gross Income' which appears regularly on company financial statements and the like. Henceforth, Gross Income should refer only to Income earned through the performance of disgusting or otherwise unseemly tasks. To me, that's a lot more logical than boring old Income earned before expenses.

I await your votes!

Jerusalem Winefest 2009: Don't Be a Hater

This year's Winefest was awesome as usual - over 35 wineries, some of them introducing new bottles, excellent jazz, great people (especially Benji Feuer - you go girl! ;-) - it's always one of the highlights of the Jerusalem summer calendar for me and Simone. This year we scored free tickets via Simone's gig for Jerusalem.com - all I had to do was pretend to be Ben Jacobson (Yaacovson). Was great also kicking it with Israel, Oren B., Emory and Zelda, Ashkie and her lady friends and of course, Roee. Also there was co-worker Rachel Tova who I saw on back to back nights now - she's friends with some people we know from Nachlaot (a drunken gchat session followed at 1 a.m. or so). One notable absentee was Bron - he'll be back in force next year I'm sure.

Special standout bottles: A newbie (just 3 weeks old) from the Galil Mountain Winery - Meron. Aged in French Oak similar to their Yiron, it's a smooth blend of at least 3 different reds. This winery gets better every year if you ask me. Other highlights included a Binyamina Tarshisha - another blended red that spent 18 months in French Oak. I was also partial (very) to Tabor's sparkling wines - there was a red based with a Merlot and the better of the two was a white based with Gewurtzemeiner. These only had a 9% alcohol content but the pourers were very generous, shall we say, making up in quantity what they may have lacked in quality.

At the Binyamina stand, I had a rather unpleasant experience with a supposedly religious person, who seemed to feel some chumra is more important than the feelings of a fellow Jew, who just happens to have finished up a 3-year stint defending his sorry ass along with the rest of this country's inhabitants.

The story went like this This young man - let's call him Reuven - asked our friendly wine pourer, who we'll call Shimon - if this particular wine was kosher. When Shimon answered in the affirmative, Reuven replied, 'Yes, but is it really kosher?' By this, he meant that since Shimon wasn't wearing a head covering of some sort, Reuven feared Shimon may have secretly sacrificed the bottle of wine he was serving to an idolatrous god.

First of all, the wine was mevushal so Reuven is a moron right out of the gate. But to me, that's completely besides the point so I butted in in my usual fashion, this time armed with a belly full of delicious wine. I explained to Reuven in as uncalm a manner as I could muster why his question was so offensive. 'Shimon just gave up three years defending this country and now you wanna know if he's Jewish enough to pour your wine?' A heated debate ensued. At one point Reuven told me he used to think like me before he saw the light. I responded that I'm no longer stuck in his small-minded box, I've seen the light, and would never go back to being like him (I'm pretty sure I never actually was in that box - my parents raised me better than that ;-)

When it was over, I went back to tasting with Shimon explaining the intricacies of each wine before he poured. I could tell he appreciated my stand - his job didn't permit him to be confrontational. Simone pointed out to me that I was the only one being aggressive and confrontational. She's definitely right about that and there was probably a better way to make my point. That being said though, we at the Common Sensorium hate ideologues. Here was a perfectly nice individual being judged not by the content of his character but simply by his outward appearance. And the judgement being made was a twistedly misguided one. I refuse to allow people to be that offensive without getting a piece of my mind - that's just the way I am.

On the way out, I told a couple that was getting married in a month that maybe they should push the wedding off a bit, make sure they were really 'sure'. As they left, Simone told me it was the guy's second marriage - he had a few kids from the first all of whom got 'dumped' on the wife. If I was Larry David and this was Curb Your Enthusiasm, the guy probably spent a sleepless night considering what I said and broke off the engagement the next morning. It was the drunken rambling part of the night. Maybe I was the hater after all ;-)