The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for May 2006

Limits on Free Speech

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A recent story in the Jerusalem Post leaves me with a number of questions.

Student indicted for Auschwitz video
A 23-year-old Dutch economics student was sentenced to 40 hours of community service Wednesday for creating an online party announcement last August using Nazi slogans and imagery from Auschwitz.

The clip, which drew condemnations from the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Auschwitz Memorial in Poland, promoted a party called “Housewitz,” a play on words combining the name of the Nazi death camp and the “house” musical genre.

Showing an image of emaciated death camp inmates, the clip advises partygoers to “dress as a skinny Jew,” then promises “hot showers (free)” against a photographic backdrop of gas chambers. Opportunities for celebratory “gangbanging” are offered alongside a picture of shrunken corpses stacked in a pile.”

I am a believer in Oliver Wendell Holmes‘ theory of the marketplace of ideas which effectively states that an important part of democracy is to have the ability to choose from many different ideas. In theory one could argue that in a system such as this the best ideas would rise to the top and be selected over others.

You could also argue against this and make a strong case for why this works in theory but not in practice. I don’t want to spend a lot of time focusing on that. Rather let’s take the position that there are some areas that are so important and require so much sensitivity that you cannot joke about them because in doing so you establish a stage in which people can lose sight of just how important they are.

That position suggests that if we allow people to kid around about the Holocaust, about the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians, the massacres in Rwanda we diminish what happened there and make it easier for history to repeat itself. At least that is how it sits in my head, I have to think about this some more as I am just putting this out there for my consumption and your own. I am not sure that I totally buy into that.

But here is what I am sure of. The farther away we get from certain events the easier it becomes for people to forget just how horrific they were and that is problematic. Any way you do it I need to think about this some more.

What do you think?

P.S. If you want to see the video you can click here. It really is truly tasteless, but it is one of those things that is hard to judge without seeing.

Yom Yerushalayim

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It is Yom Yerushalayim. It is a day that celebrates the reunification of Jerusalem. I am just one of a number of other bloggers who have blogged about this day, some far more eloquently than I have.

The picture on the right of the paratroopers liberating the Kotel is probably one of the more famous photos of Israeli history.

In the winter of ’95 I had the privilege of meeting one of the gentlemen in the photo and hearing his recollection of the war and the day that Jerusalem was finally reunified.

It was an amazing story that I’ll never forget. I can’t begin to do it justice so I’ll do as many others have and provide you with links to the recording of the recapture of the Old City and the transcript of the recording.

“This is Mordechai Twersky reporting from Jerusalem:

What you are now about to hear is perhaps one of the most riveting recordings in the modern-day history of Israel. I refer to the dramatic sounds of Israeli Defense Forces entering and liberating Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall on June 7th, 1967. You hear the sounds of gunfire. You hear the footsteps of Israeli soldiers, as they draw closer and closer and as General Uzi Narkiss instructs them and asks to be shown where the Western Wall stands. We hear a triumphant Brigadier General Shlomo Goren, later to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as he recites the memorial prayer and sound the shofar, as Israeli soldiers weep with sorrow over their comrades killed in combat.

Listen closely to this piece of history, which is housed in the archives of the Avi Yaffe Recording Studio in Jerusalem.

Colonel Motta Gur [on loudspeaker]: All company commanders, we’re sitting right now on the ridge and we’re seeing the Old City. Shortly we’re going to go in to the Old City of Jerusalem, that all generations have dreamed about. We will be the first to enter the Old City. Eitan’s tanks will advance on the left and will enter the Lion’s Gate. The final rendezvous will be on the open square above.
[The open square of the Temple Mount.]

[Sound of applause by the soldiers.]

Yossi Ronen: We are now walking on one of the main streets of Jerusalem towards the Old City. The head of the force is about to enter the Old City.

[Gunfire.]

Yossi Ronen: There is still shooting from all directions; we’re advancing towards the entrance of the Old City.

[Sound of gunfire and soldiers footsteps.]

[Yelling of commands to soldiers.]

[More soldiers footsteps.]

The soldiers are keeping a distance of approximately 5 meters between them. It’s still dangerous to walk around here; there is still sniper shooting here and there.

[Gunfire.]

We’re all told to stop; we’re advancing towards the mountainside; on our left is the Mount of Olives; we’re now in the Old City opposite the Russian church. I’m right now lowering my head; we’re running next to the mountainside. We can see the stone walls. They’re still shooting at us. The Israeli tanks are at the entrance to the Old City, and ahead we go, through the Lion’s Gate. I’m with the first unit to break through into the Old City. There is a Jordanian bus next to me, totally burnt; it is very hot here. We’re about to enter the Old City itself. We’re standing below the Lion’s Gate, the Gate is about to come crashing down, probably because of the previous shelling. Soldiers are taking cover next to the palm trees; I’m also staying close to one of the trees. We’re getting further and further into the City.

[Gunfire.]

Colonel Motta Gur announces on the army wireless: The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!

All forces, stop firing! This is the David Operations Room. All forces, stop firing! I repeat, all forces, stop firing! Over.

Commander eight-nine here, is this Motta (Gur) talking? Over.

[Inaudible response on the army wireless by Motta Gur.]

Uzi Narkiss: Motta, there isn’t anybody like you. You’re next to the Mosque of Omar.

Yossi Ronen: I’m driving fast through the Lion’s Gate all the way inside the Old City.

Command on the army wireless: Search the area, destroy all pockets of resistance and make sure to enter every single house, especially the holy places.

[Lt.- Col. Uzi Eilam blows the Shofar. Soldiers are singing Jerusalem of Gold.]

Uzi Narkiss: Tell me, where is the Western Wall? How do we get there?

Yossi Ronen: I’m walking right now down the steps towards the Western Wall. I’m not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the Western Wall and I’m touching the stones of the Western Wall.

Soldiers: [reciting the Shehechianuâ blessing]: Baruch ata Hashem, elokeinu melech haolam, she-hechianu ve-kiemanu ve-hegianu la-zman ha-zeh. [Translation: Blessed art Thou L-rd G-d King of the Universe who has sustained us and kept us and has brought us to this day]

Rabbi Shlomo Goren: Baruch ata Hashem, menachem tsion u-voneh Yerushalayim. [Translation: Blessed are thou, who comforts Zion and bulids Jerusalem]

Soldiers: Amen!

[Soldiers sing Hatikva next to the Western Wall.]

Rabbi Goren: We’re now going to recite the prayer for the fallen soldiers of this war against all of the enemies of Israel:

[Soldiers weeping]

El male rahamim, shohen ba-meromim. Hamtse menuha nahona al kanfei hashina, be-maalot kedoshim, giborim ve-tehorim, kezohar harakiya meirim u-mazhirim. Ve-nishmot halalei tsava hagana le-yisrael, she-naflu be-maaraha zot, neged oievei yisrael, ve-shnaflu al kedushat Hashem ha-am ve-ha’arets, ve-shichrur Beit Hamikdash, Har Habayit, Hakotel ha-ma’aravi veyerushalayim ir ha-elokim. Be-gan eden tehe menuhatam. Lahen ba’al ha-rahamim, yastirem beseter knafav le-olamim. Ve-yitsror be-tsror ha-hayim et nishmatam adoshem hu nahlatam, ve-yanuhu be-shalom al mishkavam [soldiers weeping loud]ve-ya’amdu le-goralam le-kets ha-yamim ve-nomar amen!

[Translation: Merciful G-d in heaven, may the heroes and the pure, be under thy Divine wings, among the holy and the pure who shine bright as the sky, and the souls of soldiers of the Israeli army who fell in this war against the enemies of Israel, who fell for their loyalty to G-d and the land of Israel, who fell for the liberation of the Temple, the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem the city of the Lord. May their place of rest be in paradise. Merciful One, O keep their souls forever alive under Thy protective wings. The Lord being their heritage, may they rest in peace, for they shalt rest and stand up for their allotted portion at the end of the days, and let us say, Amen.]

[Soldiers are weeping. Rabbi Goren sounds the shofar. Sound of gunfire in the background.]

Rabbi Goren: Le-shana HA-ZOT be-Yerushalayim ha-banuya, be-yerushalayim ha-atika! [Translation: This year in a rebuilt Jerusalem! In the Jerusalem of old!]”

Mordechai Twersky, IsraCast.com

(The historic radio broadcast of the liberation of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall
was researched, transcribed and translated by Yitschak Horneman / Quality Translations, Jerusalem)

Lost- The Finale

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I really enjoyed it. The fake commercials for the Hanso organization are getting old. Lots of questions. I have some ideas on where they are taking it, but nothing I am willing to share yet. That is code for I am still mulling it over.

Sex Theme Park

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In my time I have come up with a lot of ideas but I can’t recall ever thinking of anything like this.

“LONDON (AFP) – A sex theme park designed to enhance its visitors’ lovemaking skills will open in the heart of London within months, the academy’s director announced.

“Amora — The Academy of Sex and Relationships” is hoping to seduce up to 600,000 visitors through the doors in its first year once it opens on September 7.

Although the theme park will have no rides, thousands of visitors are expected to swing through its seven sectors, including the Pleasure and Orgasm areas.

Instead of “real exhibits”, they will be treated to tactile displays of life-sized silicone models designed to stimulate interest in erogenous zones.

The seven million-pound (10.2-million-euro, 13-million-dollar) pleasure centre central London’s Piccadilly district is out to “separate fact from myth in the world of sex and educate everyone into being better lovers”, said Doctor Sarah Brewer, its director of exhibits.

“The more sex we have, the more we want and the less sex we have, the more we want,” she said.

“This academy does push boundaries back and whatever your prowess when you come in. we will give you all the information you need to become a fantastic lover.”

Although many would benefit from enhanced lovemaking techniques, its location in the British capital may be apt. In a poll in the Wall Street Journal Europe newspaper last year, only three percent of Europeans voted Britons the best lovers.”