Someone's up early this morning - or the West Coast stayed up late.
Antisemitism has always confused me. I can see someone like my wife, who grew up in a bad part of New York, being suspicious of blacks and Puerto Ricans, but Jews are not known for being muggers. They seem to leave other people alone and do their own thing. That's what I do, and that's what I expect of others. No problem.
When I roomed with some Jews in college I was shocked by the reaction of friends and family. "Why did you do that?" I must have been asked 1,000 times. My answer was always the same: I knew them from class, they were nice guys, it was a nice apartment, and the location was good for me. Before the reactions, their religion never even occurred to me - why would I care where my roommates went on Sundays (or Saturdays)? As it was, it was UMASS. I skipped church, they skipped synagogue. Who cares?
For the second time in my life I was shocked by antisemitism after the October 7 terrorist attack on civilians. I was shocked to discover that leftist feminists object more to Jews than they do to rape as a weapon of war. I've thought about the why, again confused as I was in 1977, and I've come to the conclusion it's jealousy pure and simple. The Germans who cared about race and background couldn't stand the fact that the best minds were Jewish. Americans can't stand that no matter what happens politically, Jews do well.
Personally, I have no time for jealous people who never got past their "It's not FAIR!" phase as children. I lost friends in 1977, I lost friends in 2000, and I will probably lose more someday. But when I hear bullcrap about the Jews I object. I will continue to do so.
And if any Jews feel unsafe anywhere near Augusta, Georgia, I would be willing to be the large ugly gentile who makes their attackers think twice. I don't know what else I can do, but I will not stand for this crap. Not now, not ever.
I have never understood why there is so much hatred against Jews. I’ve asked Jewish friends, and they couldn’t tell me. Jealousy, does sound about right, now that I ponder over it. I’ve never been treated badly by any Jew, I cannot say this about everyone else.
Last Friday on my column, a commenter said he only had 4 minutes in which to opine before the start of Sabbath wherever he was. Professor Hayward said it was no problem to post Joe/Max's and my columns a little earlier just in case readers in Israel or elsewhere wanted to weigh in before electronics were to be turned off! AG
MTG: I grew up in Buena Park, five miles from Disneyland and three from Knott's Berry Farm. My schools probably had about 10% Jewish kids. I was growing up in a Roman Catholic household and our neighborhood probably had twice the share of Catholics as of Jews.
It was of very little import to any of the kids. In December, we decorated the classrooms with both Christmas and Hannukah themes. I attended two friends' bar mitzvah ceremonies and I went to a few Sabbath services. I even dated a girl who was Jewish and took her to the junior prom, but we were not a successful couple. I don't know if our parents would have been comfortable with a more blooming relationship, though.
The concept of anti-Semitism made no sense to me when I first heard about it. Learning more about Jews between the Diaspora and WWII, I realized that, by external forces and internal forces, Jews had often been insular while also being very successful. Poor Jews in many countries lived better than poor European Christians did. Since Jews were willing to lend money to wealthy Christians and Christians thought it was forbidden to collect interest, Jews became very influential even as outsiders.
The attempted annihilation of the Jewish ethnicity was a huge impetus to the creation of Israel, which was a matter of legitimate concern to Arabs living in the region. That's too much to rehash at the moment. Liberals were all for the creation of the Jewish state.
Then the Jewish State became economically successful and free. This seems to have offended Left Whingers and some liberals and suddenly Jews became the oppressors instead of the plucky, fierce people defending their own lives and their country.
No one has ever developed a very good explanation of widespread anti-Semitism. But envy may be its largest component.
I'm glad you wrote here this morning because it gives me an opportunity to publicly apologize to you and other bicyclists who may have been offended at my unfair generalization of bicyclists yesterday. I have had some very bad experiences with them, and nothing makes me angrier than getting verbal abuse from a jerk whose useless life I just saved. Always made me think (and say a couple of times) "can we do that over, but I don't check both fisheye mirrors this time?"
I am sorry for what I wrote, though, generalizations are never good. Even though there's a special place in hell for the Maine bicyclists who ride in the middle of the car lane on Baxter Blvd during commuter traffic long after our fuel taxes bought them a parallel bike path wide enough for a car, it is not fair to wish such a fate on all bicyclists.
Now that you have admirably apologized, allow me to take over the painting-with-a-broad-brush beat.
Until you have interacted with the garishly Spandex-clad bicyclists that pedal up and down Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona, you can't have a full appreciation of what the term "insufferable" means.
I live in Tucson, and know bicyclists who've been 'clipped' by vehicles (one on Mt Lemmon Highway, broken collar bone). I stick to bike lanes, and would never think of riding Mt Lemmon on a weekend.
I wasn't even thinking of their riding. I was thinking of their attitude when they come down from the mountain, to get a coffee drink at somewhere like Le Buzz. They are often (not to paint with too broad a brush, of course), very full of themselves, and look on mere foot-walkers as lesser life-forms.
I am a mostly-Tucson resident as well, and will be down there soon. I've enjoyed your comments. If you would ever like to have lunch, let me know.
So beautiful! Sigh. What a window of history in which to grow up. One time, Linda, I rode from Paris, TX to a flight in Dallas with a wonderful lady who was fine with me being a Jew, but talked for at least an hour about the difference between her Baptist Denomination and another one which she was convinced was NOT going to Heaven. AG
Love you Ammo Girl. Miss you on Powerline. Every time I drive through Minnesota on I 94 on my way to hunt ducks in Devils Lake ND, I stop in Alexandria and check out your old stomping grounds
Once again you overload me with thoughts, Max. Too many and too little time to give intelligent expression to. Once again I have to got to Walmart after sleeping most of my morning away. But thanks for this very informative post.
BTW, I learned much from the late, great American Spectator writer Rabbi Dov Fischer (may he RIP) about the many, many great discoveries and inventions of Israel and the Jewish people at large. So much of what I can eyeball around me as I sit here typing would simply disappear if not for those discoveries and inventions. Not to mention I'd probably be long dead and not sitting here at all if not for these brilliant minds.
As I'm sure you know he was bravely fighting horrendous illness and treatments just to survive and continue writing as he did. But yes, he has finally succumbed to it.
There have been many who've taken the time to dump on Tucker Carlson lately. Good. I stopped trusting him after his 'interview' of Kanye West, where TC hid the antisemitic rant.
Max, you've written a great guide towards understanding TC and antisemitism. Thank You.
My standard Tucker Carlson comment lately has been that if his decision to pal around with the likes of Nick Fuentes wasn't the last straw for any conservative, then you're a conservative with too many straws.
I'd like to mention Nick Freitas here. He is a strong conservative and a member of the Virginia legislator, which puts him in a difficult spot. His name resembles that of Mr. Fuentes but he is quite another person.
Mr. Freitas has a lot of amusing and thoughtful (some are both) videos on YouTube and I heartily recommend them.
Another film to watch is "The Death of Stalin" (2017), a comedic and mostly true account. In once scene, Stalin lies dying and doctors are summoned. But they are not very good doctors, because the best ones were "purged" in the antisemitic "doctors' plot." Spoiler: Stalin wouldn't have survived anyway.
Don't be put off by the liberal cast. An evening spent watching this movie is well spent.
Casting agents don't actually look for leftist actors. It's merely that probably 92-95% of all actors under 50 are leftist twonks to begin with. Death of S is utterly brilliant. The best of the leftist twonks can also act well.
Yes, T, you did not imply that directly. I inferred too much and ended up making sort of a separate point. Sorry. But it's true isn't it... that we always have to watch performances by Mr. X or miss Y, knowing how pathetic their stunted public minds are.
It is true. Brings to mind the adage, "shut up and sing." In a way, we should admire professional actors' ability to convincingly pretend to be be characters far more reasonable than their real-life selves. That's gotta take skill.
It has always seemed to me that Jews are easy scapegoats for the envy and resentment that are part of human nature. Jewish excellence is an embarrassment to the less industrious. Since I was raised post-WWII, my original understanding of Jew-hatred was formed by the wartime atrocities. Reading Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, published in 1820, was eye-opening as it dealt with the calamities inflicted on Isaac the Jew and his fair daughter, Rebecca, during the Middle Ages. Antisemitism is a curse upon us all, but like Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Jews have doughty defenders around the world. I count myself among them.
"No! Pedants are awful, horrible people, and we shouldn't tolerate them! We must make sure that young children keep their innocence! .........Oh.......never mind." -- Emily Litella
Another superb commentary. Thank you Max. I really didn't know much about Tucker until recently. I haven't had a television for many years. (I never missed it.) However, with the recent outrage I have tried to get a true idea of what he is about. I wanted to hear from people I respect, like yourself, and Dennis Prager, even though Dennis is currently incapacitated. I also listened to Megyn Kelly who I generally admire, but on this issue seems tragically off the path. Several commentators on NRO have also added to my understanding. However, the most salient moment was Tucker himself talking to Megyn during her recent tour, I believe in Atlanta.
Tucker was transparently ridiculous. His use of his "Christianity" as a cover, claiming that he was following Christ's teachings by not judging others, by allowing them to show their "humanity" was blatantly absurd. D'nesh's idea, as shown in the attached video, could well be correct. I do think that Tucker may be deluding himself with his self-righteousness. He may have buried his antisemitism deep enough that he doesn't fully comprehend what he is doing, but everything else in his affect is as deep as a puddle on the street. His pretense of calm, loving, Christian grace is laughable. It reminds me of an idea that if you say something over and over again outloud that you can fool your subconscious into believing it is so. To me, that looks like what he is doing. That Megyn Kelly believes him, to me, only shows her essential decency, that in that her inability to see fault in an old friend she has long admired, well beyond his sell-by date.
We are in a sad period. What has been happening is ugly, but it isn't new. It is like herpes, never cured, always waiting under the surface for a weakness in the general constitution, a stress, as it were, in order to breakout. To some extent TDS is a contributing factor because it unites a lot of ugliness, like a secondary infection. Jews will survive this, as they have survived so much before. Perhaps, it will awaken those who complacently sleep thinking that such stuff is historic but not a thing of the present. Tis consumation devoutly to be wished.
Brilliant post, Eugene! And, at least for the moment, I agree with you that Megyn is very torn trying not to pile on upon a good friend she knows personally. But in the end, a time will come for choosing. I like her a lot, respect her a lot, and hope she chooses well. There's probably not a one of us who has not seen a dear friend, a relative, a child go wildly off the rails either personally or politically. And we have tried hard to give them a long leash. But sometimes, that leash runs out. It is painful. AG
Thank you. Your words mean a lot to me. I agree that Megyn is going to have to cross the line she is currently straddling. There is no avoiding it, as Tucker is very likely to add more fuel to the fire.
I'm disappointed as I was a big Tucker fan and it is hard to let go. But the wails amongst the punditry are a tempest in a teapot. On the big things that matter, President Trump had the moral confidence to bomb Iran's nukes.
I KNEW I liked you! I, too, was a feisty little scrapper until puberty. Alas, then testosterone was the unbeatable advantage...but sometimes, a small girl could still win with that all-important "first blow" you mention with the element of shock and awe! AG
As a third grader, I leapt from the schoolhouse top steps, with flailing fists, onto the back of an eighth-grade boy who delighted in tormenting me with teasing. I got in a few good licks, and his buddies had a good laugh at his expense. He left me alone after that, much like a large dog gives a wide berth to an angry cat threatening by eye contact to fluff him up.
I suspect that Tucker's objection to the bombing of Iran's nukes is more of his current affectation as a Christian filled with love and forgiveness. More self-delusion. I do know a lot of people, like yourself who have an ongoing affection for Tucker based on an earlier incarnation. I think you have to look at him as he is now, not look solely at his prior goodness.
I grew up in an almost exclusively Jewish neighborhood where I was the only yok on the block. I remember being extremely jealous that other boys my age were getting big Bar Mitzvah celebrations and for my thirteenth birthday all I got was a very much pre-owned bicycle!
Very funny, Michael! Most of those Bar Mitzvah celebrations are WAY over-done and out of control. I had a friend in L.A. whose sister-in-law engaged several of the Laker Girls to come dance with the little "recent men" at her son's party. Yikes!
A wonderful commenter on Power Line, Ted Ung, sadly deceased now, was half Chinese and knew a LOT about Judaism and quite a bit of Yiddish. When I asked him how, he said, "Well, the Asian kids and the Jewish kids were always the ones in the accelerated classes when I was in school. I picked up a lot." RIP, Ted, you are much missed! AG
I was a bright student and went to physics grad school at UCSD. When I got there the first year students had a meeting. I was amazed that I was about the only WASP there. Most were either Oriental or Jewish.
Though a few of us who comment here are not as spectacularly credentialed as you, sir, ALL of us could figure out at once that you were/are "a bright student". Heck, in your comments about the Germans and the bomb, I thought you were channeling Sheldon Cooper, from Big Bang Theory! Well done, WASP!
P.S. Those Founding Fathers -- WASPS every one -- did alright!! AG
Well I'm not all that spectacular. My funding got messed up at UCSD and I had to leave with a masters.
I have had the good fortune to actually see many famous people. I saw Werner Heisenberg when he gave a guest lecture at Berkeley when I was an undergraduate. I saw Hirohito when he was a guest at Scripps when I was at UCSD. I saw the Dalai Lama when he was a guest at SCU. I'd say hello to Robert Heinlein when I passed him in the halls at the UCSC main library - he had an office there. I was up at Camp Red Cloud in the ROK when VP Bush gave a pep talk there in 1982. And of course I got to chat with Tom Lehrer when he was a visiting math prof at UCSC.
Great column as always frankly. And the responses are intelligent and take the discussion farther. I don't think in terms of disease but I do remember reading and hearing from my father about FR Coughlin, and on a higher or more sophisticated level, Lindbergh. The same thing here. It purports to be America first of course, but its pro Nazi- and in this case pro Stalin. This is a sane mix. Oh and after Charlie Kirk was murdered wasn't it the Jews? I used to listen to Megan Kelly but frankly I don't see either her great intellectual capacity, Or her ability to distinguish a story that makes sense from a nice conspiracy theory.
Bill Kristol was long a big hero of mine. Until very recently, he was the only person who had ever PAID me to write. We both share a love of the awesome late writer, Donald E. Westlake, and he paid me $250 to write a review of a book about him in his magazine. The humorless editor took most of the funny out of it, but I still got a nice check.
When he became a dedicated Never Trumper, I thought, "Well, good people can differ." But he voted for Kamala and said that he WOULD have voted for a comatose Biden over DJT. Oooohkaaaay. Now, we're getting into deep weeds. But, when he said he would have voted for Mamdani, well, his journey is complete. So sad. AG
A friend of mine from NYC, when I told him what Kristol said about Mamdani, replied: "it's surprising to learn how many people have taken up smoking pot."
Most everyone here doubtless knows, but Scott and John at Power Line have published President Washington's letter to the Jews every year on his birthday.
Whatever else you read on this -- in my utterly unbiased opinion -- terrific column, DO NOT skip clicking on the Gary Gulman comedy set. It is brilliant and very very very funny. AG
The immediate problem emanates from our sabotaged educational system. While fixing that is a high priority, it will take time. Robust self-defense in all forms is imperative. Jews can no longer be easy marks. Of course, leftist DAs and judges who favor crime won't be much help, to say the least. Self-defense now carries a risk of arrest, etc. The Feds can help by rooting out politically inspired thuggery.
The line between "politically inspired thuggery" and "free speech" and "peaceable assembly" can be a difficult border to survey. The feds have a limited role in rooting out any political activity or thuggery; most crimes are state business rather than federal business.
We need to always be careful about the restrictions we demand on others because we're more-or-less volunteering to abide by those restrictions ourselves.
I disagree. There is no difficult line defining "free speech" or "peaceable assembly." It is crystal clear.
As someone who has BEEN a left-wing activist, I feel I can weigh in here with some limited authority. Neither I nor any group I led or participated in EVER prevented any speaker from speaking. No bullhorns, no blocked entrances, just the occasional request to have the opportunity to respond to the speaker. Which was usually denied. On campus, we set up literature tables beside others of opposite opinions. We handed out leaflets or sold newspapers and never got in anybody's personal space in an offensive way. We would have been REMOVED from the group had we ever attacked a police car, a returning soldier or keyed a car. Heck, we expelled people who smoked weed! In fact, our group often provided MARSHALLS to make sure that no wild-eyed (or planted) goofballs went freelancing in a demonstration. The current crop of lunatics are THUGS plain and simple and it's been going on for a long time without a proper FAFO response by people in charge. AG
And that SHOULD have included Deans and Presidents of colleges. You occupy a building, you prevent Ann Coulter or Ben Shapiro from speaking, you are no longer a student. Cowardice on steroids for decades. And greed, of course. AG
My alma mater. They had about 10 excellent years with Mitch Daniels as the President. I’m paying attention to see if they have succumbed to the woke mind virus (Thanks Elon, or is he the originator of that phrase?).
Bad news: I think they've replaced her now, but a few years ago I read a story in which the then-new Dean of Purdue University Engineering was yammering on how about "different ways of knowing."
Max, I loved this column. As usual, it was fantastic.
My own experience with anti-semitism seems different from most. As you know, my mom's mom legitimately claimed to be Austrian, since here passport into the the US came from the Ausrto-Hungarian Empire, that had sovereignty over her hometown (Buda) in modern Hungary, and the small village in modern Ukraine, where two generations of her family hd lived, before my great grandparents moved to Budapest. .
She also claimed to be 'Greek Orthodox,' which -- to a fairly bright 11 year old -- seemed geographically odd, if not incorrect. In fact, she was a Jew, as my second cousin, Meredith, convincingly proved with some impressive research and uncompromising scholarship.
The difference, of which I speak, is the fact that grandma intentionally HID the fact that she was a Jew. She met and married a crazy Italian rabble rouser, named Francesco Lupinacci in NYC in the very early 1900s. She eventually had 10 children (who lived to maturity) with this man.
Grandma also lived with my small family for about four years in the late 50s. I got to know her well. She steadfastly avoided discussing her background. Pressing her on any details about the "old country" would only make her angry. Now, I realize that it scared her.
Though this is somewhat speculative, I can only conclude that her experience with anti-semitism was so profound and so pernicious that she had to move half way around the world, marry someone outside her culture, and live a life with a secret that she feared might be revealed.
If I right, then it resolves a lot of the issues that my sisters, cousins, and I had with grandma. While that is somewhat satisfying, I am sad that my grandmother had to take such extraordinary measures to try to find some safe harbor in her life because the folks in Ukraine and Hungary were so anti-semitic.
The related phenomenon of the Jew who doesn't even know it is very common one. I've run into and heard about and read about a lot of people in that situation.
None of us today has any idea how bad it was and will be again if we let it.
Someone's up early this morning - or the West Coast stayed up late.
Antisemitism has always confused me. I can see someone like my wife, who grew up in a bad part of New York, being suspicious of blacks and Puerto Ricans, but Jews are not known for being muggers. They seem to leave other people alone and do their own thing. That's what I do, and that's what I expect of others. No problem.
When I roomed with some Jews in college I was shocked by the reaction of friends and family. "Why did you do that?" I must have been asked 1,000 times. My answer was always the same: I knew them from class, they were nice guys, it was a nice apartment, and the location was good for me. Before the reactions, their religion never even occurred to me - why would I care where my roommates went on Sundays (or Saturdays)? As it was, it was UMASS. I skipped church, they skipped synagogue. Who cares?
For the second time in my life I was shocked by antisemitism after the October 7 terrorist attack on civilians. I was shocked to discover that leftist feminists object more to Jews than they do to rape as a weapon of war. I've thought about the why, again confused as I was in 1977, and I've come to the conclusion it's jealousy pure and simple. The Germans who cared about race and background couldn't stand the fact that the best minds were Jewish. Americans can't stand that no matter what happens politically, Jews do well.
Personally, I have no time for jealous people who never got past their "It's not FAIR!" phase as children. I lost friends in 1977, I lost friends in 2000, and I will probably lose more someday. But when I hear bullcrap about the Jews I object. I will continue to do so.
And if any Jews feel unsafe anywhere near Augusta, Georgia, I would be willing to be the large ugly gentile who makes their attackers think twice. I don't know what else I can do, but I will not stand for this crap. Not now, not ever.
I have never understood why there is so much hatred against Jews. I’ve asked Jewish friends, and they couldn’t tell me. Jealousy, does sound about right, now that I ponder over it. I’ve never been treated badly by any Jew, I cannot say this about everyone else.
Last Friday on my column, a commenter said he only had 4 minutes in which to opine before the start of Sabbath wherever he was. Professor Hayward said it was no problem to post Joe/Max's and my columns a little earlier just in case readers in Israel or elsewhere wanted to weigh in before electronics were to be turned off! AG
So being able to read you and Max during the small hours is one more good thing brought to me by the Jews.
hahaha. AG
Well, I like not having polio - but I depend on my TV remote. Both invented by one of the Sons & Daughters of Abraham.
God Bless You, dear friend, and in the words of Leonard Nimoy, yet another Jew, "Live long and prosper." AG
MTG: I grew up in Buena Park, five miles from Disneyland and three from Knott's Berry Farm. My schools probably had about 10% Jewish kids. I was growing up in a Roman Catholic household and our neighborhood probably had twice the share of Catholics as of Jews.
It was of very little import to any of the kids. In December, we decorated the classrooms with both Christmas and Hannukah themes. I attended two friends' bar mitzvah ceremonies and I went to a few Sabbath services. I even dated a girl who was Jewish and took her to the junior prom, but we were not a successful couple. I don't know if our parents would have been comfortable with a more blooming relationship, though.
The concept of anti-Semitism made no sense to me when I first heard about it. Learning more about Jews between the Diaspora and WWII, I realized that, by external forces and internal forces, Jews had often been insular while also being very successful. Poor Jews in many countries lived better than poor European Christians did. Since Jews were willing to lend money to wealthy Christians and Christians thought it was forbidden to collect interest, Jews became very influential even as outsiders.
The attempted annihilation of the Jewish ethnicity was a huge impetus to the creation of Israel, which was a matter of legitimate concern to Arabs living in the region. That's too much to rehash at the moment. Liberals were all for the creation of the Jewish state.
Then the Jewish State became economically successful and free. This seems to have offended Left Whingers and some liberals and suddenly Jews became the oppressors instead of the plucky, fierce people defending their own lives and their country.
No one has ever developed a very good explanation of widespread anti-Semitism. But envy may be its largest component.
I'm glad you wrote here this morning because it gives me an opportunity to publicly apologize to you and other bicyclists who may have been offended at my unfair generalization of bicyclists yesterday. I have had some very bad experiences with them, and nothing makes me angrier than getting verbal abuse from a jerk whose useless life I just saved. Always made me think (and say a couple of times) "can we do that over, but I don't check both fisheye mirrors this time?"
I am sorry for what I wrote, though, generalizations are never good. Even though there's a special place in hell for the Maine bicyclists who ride in the middle of the car lane on Baxter Blvd during commuter traffic long after our fuel taxes bought them a parallel bike path wide enough for a car, it is not fair to wish such a fate on all bicyclists.
Now that you have admirably apologized, allow me to take over the painting-with-a-broad-brush beat.
Until you have interacted with the garishly Spandex-clad bicyclists that pedal up and down Mt. Lemmon in Tucson, Arizona, you can't have a full appreciation of what the term "insufferable" means.
Well, we all know who John Kerry is. He's the one with the photo in the dictionary beside the word "insufferable". He loves to be seen in Spandex.
I live in Tucson, and know bicyclists who've been 'clipped' by vehicles (one on Mt Lemmon Highway, broken collar bone). I stick to bike lanes, and would never think of riding Mt Lemmon on a weekend.
I wasn't even thinking of their riding. I was thinking of their attitude when they come down from the mountain, to get a coffee drink at somewhere like Le Buzz. They are often (not to paint with too broad a brush, of course), very full of themselves, and look on mere foot-walkers as lesser life-forms.
I am a mostly-Tucson resident as well, and will be down there soon. I've enjoyed your comments. If you would ever like to have lunch, let me know.
I took it all in good spirit, dear friend and fellow keyboard-slave.
I'm not ashamed to say that I think Satan has a hand in it. Because as you state eloquently there's no reason.
I grew up in a new neighborhood, post WWII, in Dallas TX. Lot 1, House 1 in the middle of what had been a corn field.
Almost every buyer was a WWII vet & family.
We were quite a jumble! Jews, Christians, whites, Hispanics. There were war brides from other countries & we loved them.
We didn’t ask someone if their dad was in the war, but what branch.
That was the the common denominator.
Of course, in school the question was asked: What church do you go to.
Ah! The demarcation line.
We belonged to the Church of Christ & that brought more side eyes than a synagogue.
But we all got along.
I simply can’t imagine a different world.
So beautiful! Sigh. What a window of history in which to grow up. One time, Linda, I rode from Paris, TX to a flight in Dallas with a wonderful lady who was fine with me being a Jew, but talked for at least an hour about the difference between her Baptist Denomination and another one which she was convinced was NOT going to Heaven. AG
Baptists take the “flavor” of their churches seriously!
Thank heavens they’ve eased up a bit.
I don’t get it either.
Love you Ammo Girl. Miss you on Powerline. Every time I drive through Minnesota on I 94 on my way to hunt ducks in Devils Lake ND, I stop in Alexandria and check out your old stomping grounds
Once again you overload me with thoughts, Max. Too many and too little time to give intelligent expression to. Once again I have to got to Walmart after sleeping most of my morning away. But thanks for this very informative post.
BTW, I learned much from the late, great American Spectator writer Rabbi Dov Fischer (may he RIP) about the many, many great discoveries and inventions of Israel and the Jewish people at large. So much of what I can eyeball around me as I sit here typing would simply disappear if not for those discoveries and inventions. Not to mention I'd probably be long dead and not sitting here at all if not for these brilliant minds.
God Bless,
Jim
Ouch. I didn't know about Rabbi Fischer. I will miss him.
As I'm sure you know he was bravely fighting horrendous illness and treatments just to survive and continue writing as he did. But yes, he has finally succumbed to it.
There have been many who've taken the time to dump on Tucker Carlson lately. Good. I stopped trusting him after his 'interview' of Kanye West, where TC hid the antisemitic rant.
Max, you've written a great guide towards understanding TC and antisemitism. Thank You.
My standard Tucker Carlson comment lately has been that if his decision to pal around with the likes of Nick Fuentes wasn't the last straw for any conservative, then you're a conservative with too many straws.
+++++
"You know a person by the company they keep"
When Ted Cruz is your adversary, and Nick Fuentes an ally, that makes you .... not a conservative.
I'd like to mention Nick Freitas here. He is a strong conservative and a member of the Virginia legislator, which puts him in a difficult spot. His name resembles that of Mr. Fuentes but he is quite another person.
Mr. Freitas has a lot of amusing and thoughtful (some are both) videos on YouTube and I heartily recommend them.
From what I've seen, me too.
Another film to watch is "The Death of Stalin" (2017), a comedic and mostly true account. In once scene, Stalin lies dying and doctors are summoned. But they are not very good doctors, because the best ones were "purged" in the antisemitic "doctors' plot." Spoiler: Stalin wouldn't have survived anyway.
Don't be put off by the liberal cast. An evening spent watching this movie is well spent.
One of our recent favorites as well!
It took me several years after hearing about it to actually watch it. It's worth watching more than once.
Casting agents don't actually look for leftist actors. It's merely that probably 92-95% of all actors under 50 are leftist twonks to begin with. Death of S is utterly brilliant. The best of the leftist twonks can also act well.
I didn't mean to imply otherwise.
Yes, T, you did not imply that directly. I inferred too much and ended up making sort of a separate point. Sorry. But it's true isn't it... that we always have to watch performances by Mr. X or miss Y, knowing how pathetic their stunted public minds are.
It is true. Brings to mind the adage, "shut up and sing." In a way, we should admire professional actors' ability to convincingly pretend to be be characters far more reasonable than their real-life selves. That's gotta take skill.
It has always seemed to me that Jews are easy scapegoats for the envy and resentment that are part of human nature. Jewish excellence is an embarrassment to the less industrious. Since I was raised post-WWII, my original understanding of Jew-hatred was formed by the wartime atrocities. Reading Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, published in 1820, was eye-opening as it dealt with the calamities inflicted on Isaac the Jew and his fair daughter, Rebecca, during the Middle Ages. Antisemitism is a curse upon us all, but like Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, Jews have doughty defenders around the world. I count myself among them.
Sheesh. Adam Smith and now Walter Scott. I'll do the Pedant Tree stuff around here, please.
Pedantry is next to godliness.
"No! Pedants are awful, horrible people, and we shouldn't tolerate them! We must make sure that young children keep their innocence! .........Oh.......never mind." -- Emily Litella
Another superb commentary. Thank you Max. I really didn't know much about Tucker until recently. I haven't had a television for many years. (I never missed it.) However, with the recent outrage I have tried to get a true idea of what he is about. I wanted to hear from people I respect, like yourself, and Dennis Prager, even though Dennis is currently incapacitated. I also listened to Megyn Kelly who I generally admire, but on this issue seems tragically off the path. Several commentators on NRO have also added to my understanding. However, the most salient moment was Tucker himself talking to Megyn during her recent tour, I believe in Atlanta.
Tucker was transparently ridiculous. His use of his "Christianity" as a cover, claiming that he was following Christ's teachings by not judging others, by allowing them to show their "humanity" was blatantly absurd. D'nesh's idea, as shown in the attached video, could well be correct. I do think that Tucker may be deluding himself with his self-righteousness. He may have buried his antisemitism deep enough that he doesn't fully comprehend what he is doing, but everything else in his affect is as deep as a puddle on the street. His pretense of calm, loving, Christian grace is laughable. It reminds me of an idea that if you say something over and over again outloud that you can fool your subconscious into believing it is so. To me, that looks like what he is doing. That Megyn Kelly believes him, to me, only shows her essential decency, that in that her inability to see fault in an old friend she has long admired, well beyond his sell-by date.
We are in a sad period. What has been happening is ugly, but it isn't new. It is like herpes, never cured, always waiting under the surface for a weakness in the general constitution, a stress, as it were, in order to breakout. To some extent TDS is a contributing factor because it unites a lot of ugliness, like a secondary infection. Jews will survive this, as they have survived so much before. Perhaps, it will awaken those who complacently sleep thinking that such stuff is historic but not a thing of the present. Tis consumation devoutly to be wished.
Yes, Jews will survive this. To believe this, you only have to read the first few books of the Bible.
Brilliant post, Eugene! And, at least for the moment, I agree with you that Megyn is very torn trying not to pile on upon a good friend she knows personally. But in the end, a time will come for choosing. I like her a lot, respect her a lot, and hope she chooses well. There's probably not a one of us who has not seen a dear friend, a relative, a child go wildly off the rails either personally or politically. And we have tried hard to give them a long leash. But sometimes, that leash runs out. It is painful. AG
Thank you. Your words mean a lot to me. I agree that Megyn is going to have to cross the line she is currently straddling. There is no avoiding it, as Tucker is very likely to add more fuel to the fire.
I'm disappointed as I was a big Tucker fan and it is hard to let go. But the wails amongst the punditry are a tempest in a teapot. On the big things that matter, President Trump had the moral confidence to bomb Iran's nukes.
As a scrapper in my youth, the first blow usually won the war (if it was hard enough).
I KNEW I liked you! I, too, was a feisty little scrapper until puberty. Alas, then testosterone was the unbeatable advantage...but sometimes, a small girl could still win with that all-important "first blow" you mention with the element of shock and awe! AG
As a third grader, I leapt from the schoolhouse top steps, with flailing fists, onto the back of an eighth-grade boy who delighted in tormenting me with teasing. I got in a few good licks, and his buddies had a good laugh at his expense. He left me alone after that, much like a large dog gives a wide berth to an angry cat threatening by eye contact to fluff him up.
We would have been SUCH great friends in grade school! AG
But what shape would the school be in?
That was you??? I still have a discolored bruise on my jaw.
You gave me a mental picture of that, hilarious.
I suspect that Tucker's objection to the bombing of Iran's nukes is more of his current affectation as a Christian filled with love and forgiveness. More self-delusion. I do know a lot of people, like yourself who have an ongoing affection for Tucker based on an earlier incarnation. I think you have to look at him as he is now, not look solely at his prior goodness.
IIUC the congregation in Newport, RI, is the oldest one in the US.
Boise has Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel, which meets in its original building. It's the oldest continuously used synagogue west of the Mississippi.
I grew up in an almost exclusively Jewish neighborhood where I was the only yok on the block. I remember being extremely jealous that other boys my age were getting big Bar Mitzvah celebrations and for my thirteenth birthday all I got was a very much pre-owned bicycle!
Very funny, Michael! Most of those Bar Mitzvah celebrations are WAY over-done and out of control. I had a friend in L.A. whose sister-in-law engaged several of the Laker Girls to come dance with the little "recent men" at her son's party. Yikes!
A wonderful commenter on Power Line, Ted Ung, sadly deceased now, was half Chinese and knew a LOT about Judaism and quite a bit of Yiddish. When I asked him how, he said, "Well, the Asian kids and the Jewish kids were always the ones in the accelerated classes when I was in school. I picked up a lot." RIP, Ted, you are much missed! AG
Ted is a beautiful soul.
I was a bright student and went to physics grad school at UCSD. When I got there the first year students had a meeting. I was amazed that I was about the only WASP there. Most were either Oriental or Jewish.
Are we allowed to say Oriental these days?
Though a few of us who comment here are not as spectacularly credentialed as you, sir, ALL of us could figure out at once that you were/are "a bright student". Heck, in your comments about the Germans and the bomb, I thought you were channeling Sheldon Cooper, from Big Bang Theory! Well done, WASP!
P.S. Those Founding Fathers -- WASPS every one -- did alright!! AG
Well I'm not all that spectacular. My funding got messed up at UCSD and I had to leave with a masters.
I have had the good fortune to actually see many famous people. I saw Werner Heisenberg when he gave a guest lecture at Berkeley when I was an undergraduate. I saw Hirohito when he was a guest at Scripps when I was at UCSD. I saw the Dalai Lama when he was a guest at SCU. I'd say hello to Robert Heinlein when I passed him in the halls at the UCSC main library - he had an office there. I was up at Camp Red Cloud in the ROK when VP Bush gave a pep talk there in 1982. And of course I got to chat with Tom Lehrer when he was a visiting math prof at UCSC.
I suffered from Xmas envy! I tried hanging my sock, on the back of a chair - we had no fireplace. Sadly, I awoke to find an empty limp sock.
Great column as always frankly. And the responses are intelligent and take the discussion farther. I don't think in terms of disease but I do remember reading and hearing from my father about FR Coughlin, and on a higher or more sophisticated level, Lindbergh. The same thing here. It purports to be America first of course, but its pro Nazi- and in this case pro Stalin. This is a sane mix. Oh and after Charlie Kirk was murdered wasn't it the Jews? I used to listen to Megan Kelly but frankly I don't see either her great intellectual capacity, Or her ability to distinguish a story that makes sense from a nice conspiracy theory.
Bill Kristol was long a big hero of mine. Until very recently, he was the only person who had ever PAID me to write. We both share a love of the awesome late writer, Donald E. Westlake, and he paid me $250 to write a review of a book about him in his magazine. The humorless editor took most of the funny out of it, but I still got a nice check.
When he became a dedicated Never Trumper, I thought, "Well, good people can differ." But he voted for Kamala and said that he WOULD have voted for a comatose Biden over DJT. Oooohkaaaay. Now, we're getting into deep weeds. But, when he said he would have voted for Mamdani, well, his journey is complete. So sad. AG
A friend of mine from NYC, when I told him what Kristol said about Mamdani, replied: "it's surprising to learn how many people have taken up smoking pot."
Yes! That letter by POTUS 1 should be more famous.
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0135
Thanks, "Max," for the reminder.
And, now that I think of it, Congress should repeal the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.
Most everyone here doubtless knows, but Scott and John at Power Line have published President Washington's letter to the Jews every year on his birthday.
Yes, and restore both Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays as separate holidays.
Amen!
I do look forward to Friday's (Australian time), also known a Max maxing day.
Hear hear! WELL SAID.
Whatever else you read on this -- in my utterly unbiased opinion -- terrific column, DO NOT skip clicking on the Gary Gulman comedy set. It is brilliant and very very very funny. AG
Very funny stuff!
I sure enjoyed it
The immediate problem emanates from our sabotaged educational system. While fixing that is a high priority, it will take time. Robust self-defense in all forms is imperative. Jews can no longer be easy marks. Of course, leftist DAs and judges who favor crime won't be much help, to say the least. Self-defense now carries a risk of arrest, etc. The Feds can help by rooting out politically inspired thuggery.
The line between "politically inspired thuggery" and "free speech" and "peaceable assembly" can be a difficult border to survey. The feds have a limited role in rooting out any political activity or thuggery; most crimes are state business rather than federal business.
We need to always be careful about the restrictions we demand on others because we're more-or-less volunteering to abide by those restrictions ourselves.
Thuggery is illegal, no matter what the justification is.
I disagree. There is no difficult line defining "free speech" or "peaceable assembly." It is crystal clear.
As someone who has BEEN a left-wing activist, I feel I can weigh in here with some limited authority. Neither I nor any group I led or participated in EVER prevented any speaker from speaking. No bullhorns, no blocked entrances, just the occasional request to have the opportunity to respond to the speaker. Which was usually denied. On campus, we set up literature tables beside others of opposite opinions. We handed out leaflets or sold newspapers and never got in anybody's personal space in an offensive way. We would have been REMOVED from the group had we ever attacked a police car, a returning soldier or keyed a car. Heck, we expelled people who smoked weed! In fact, our group often provided MARSHALLS to make sure that no wild-eyed (or planted) goofballs went freelancing in a demonstration. The current crop of lunatics are THUGS plain and simple and it's been going on for a long time without a proper FAFO response by people in charge. AG
Lo, how the Marxists have fallen.
Of course once they had control we found out that "freedom for the thought you hate" only applied to them after all.
Yes, I believe Mario Savio, the Big Deal Free Speech Guy at Berkeley even said that aloud, but nobody took it seriously. Our bad. AG
With all that, somebody has to make the right call in the moment and follow through. That's why we pay them.
And that SHOULD have included Deans and Presidents of colleges. You occupy a building, you prevent Ann Coulter or Ben Shapiro from speaking, you are no longer a student. Cowardice on steroids for decades. And greed, of course. AG
If I had to pick an engineering college today, it would be Purdue and not the fully wokified MIT.
My alma mater. They had about 10 excellent years with Mitch Daniels as the President. I’m paying attention to see if they have succumbed to the woke mind virus (Thanks Elon, or is he the originator of that phrase?).
Bad news: I think they've replaced her now, but a few years ago I read a story in which the then-new Dean of Purdue University Engineering was yammering on how about "different ways of knowing."
The people I've met there are good, both professors and students.
Well said Max. As I've said here before, hating Jews makes no "sense". At least no intellectual sense: it is a spiritual problem. A spiritual virus.
Max, I loved this column. As usual, it was fantastic.
My own experience with anti-semitism seems different from most. As you know, my mom's mom legitimately claimed to be Austrian, since here passport into the the US came from the Ausrto-Hungarian Empire, that had sovereignty over her hometown (Buda) in modern Hungary, and the small village in modern Ukraine, where two generations of her family hd lived, before my great grandparents moved to Budapest. .
She also claimed to be 'Greek Orthodox,' which -- to a fairly bright 11 year old -- seemed geographically odd, if not incorrect. In fact, she was a Jew, as my second cousin, Meredith, convincingly proved with some impressive research and uncompromising scholarship.
The difference, of which I speak, is the fact that grandma intentionally HID the fact that she was a Jew. She met and married a crazy Italian rabble rouser, named Francesco Lupinacci in NYC in the very early 1900s. She eventually had 10 children (who lived to maturity) with this man.
Grandma also lived with my small family for about four years in the late 50s. I got to know her well. She steadfastly avoided discussing her background. Pressing her on any details about the "old country" would only make her angry. Now, I realize that it scared her.
Though this is somewhat speculative, I can only conclude that her experience with anti-semitism was so profound and so pernicious that she had to move half way around the world, marry someone outside her culture, and live a life with a secret that she feared might be revealed.
If I right, then it resolves a lot of the issues that my sisters, cousins, and I had with grandma. While that is somewhat satisfying, I am sad that my grandmother had to take such extraordinary measures to try to find some safe harbor in her life because the folks in Ukraine and Hungary were so anti-semitic.
TonyP,
The related phenomenon of the Jew who doesn't even know it is very common one. I've run into and heard about and read about a lot of people in that situation.
None of us today has any idea how bad it was and will be again if we let it.